The best magazine
A good friend of mine and I were talking recently about the state of the world and all the problems we are facing right now.
We both agreed that it is overwhelming to consider all the war, disease, neglect and abuse, poverty and starvation in the world that one can't help but become despondent and depressed.
We felt so helpless.
Out of emotional self-preservation, we both admitted that by choice, we protected ourselves by deliberately not paying too much attention to world events and the news.
It was simply too painful to be too plugged in.
Yet being completely ignorant is a bit too selfish for me.
I have to get involved and know what's going on to a certain extent.
I want to be part of the solutions not part of the problems in the world.
I want to make a positive difference if I can.
Sometimes that seems like an insurmountable task or a huge ego trip for me though.
How can little old me make any kind of noticeable difference? Who am I? I am just one average woman in a world of billions.
I am just one woman with just one voice.
How can I do anything that will matter? But then, I thought about it and realized that Gandhi was just one man.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
was just one man.
Abraham Lincoln was just one man who battled depression most of his life even.
And, there are countless many other man and women throughout time who have single handedly caused revolutions because they had the courage of their convictions and the passion, drive and willingness to take action.
They didn't know if they would succeed or fail.
They did what they did because no one else was and because they needed to make people aware of something that was important.
Many great people started out as just average people like you and me, who became great because of what they stood for, spoke up about and took action for.
Then it dawned on me that "just one person," is how things have always changed.
Just one person caring and committing to take just one action has been how revolutions and transformations have always happened.
Just one person, one voice, one vote, one small action at a time is what has and always will make a difference.
I am just one woman but with one powerful and fierce heart that weeps for the suffering of all the innocent victims in the world, who cries at the waste, abuse and neglect that squanders our valuable resources away.
I am just one woman who cares, cries, yells and curses the atrocities happening in the world that I am powerless to do anything about.
And, I am one woman who can make a difference because I care enough to speak up even when it isn't popular and makes others uncomfortable around me.
I am just one woman who can make a difference by writing, informing others, having conversations, voting for the people and initiatives that matter to me.
I am just one woman who can make a difference one article at a time, one conversation at a time, one action at a time.
If I care and there are things happening in the world that break my heart and I do nothing about it because it is just too painful and hard than shame on me.
How selfish, weak and irresponsible of me.
But I must balance taking action with a realistic attitude that yes, perhaps I won't solve world hunger but I can feed one person.
It starts there at the local, individual level.
I can make a difference with one person, in my local community with a cause or problem that matters to me.
I can enroll others into taking action with me by having conversations to inform and learn.
I can create a community of concerned citizens who are also willing to take some action, even if it is just one small action; it is a step in the right direction.
Now, what if we had a city of one million, a nation of millions and a world of billions of individuals each just taking one action for one cause at a time? What kind of change do you think is possible then? Something to think about.
One person can make a difference.
That is always how change has happened.
This one woman is willing to, how about you?
Source: ...