As the days go by and we watch the news, we are faced with many challenges. There are racial events still transpiring in our world. War, crime and evil doings. However, even though all of this negative energy is still attempting to be pervasive, there are still enlightened people standing up for what's right. This is the way to change in our world.When we think of change, like most things, we think of change and how it effects us personally. What is on a small level, like our personal lives, is also on a large level, as in the world. Our family situations might mimic our community relationships, our states, our countries, our world. If we can't get along in our families, we can't get along in our communities, how is it expected for us to get along in our world?
World change comes about from people who care enough to begin to make changes themselves. Nelson Mandela, who decided he was tired of the way he was living in his community began to stand up for what was right. He ended up making great changes for his country Gandhi held fast to his principals of peace and paved the way for the future of his country. Both of these men are known world wide. Yet both of these men started with only one thought, one dream, one steadfast pure desire to do what's right and they held themselves to it.
Change is like that. It only takes one pebble in the water to ripple out across the lake. The bigger the splash, the more ripples we see and as we go forward it is my sincere hope there will be many. Change for the good, change in healing our planet and each other is over due and much needed.
Change does come with a price. Some prices for change are too steep for some to embark on and others not so much. Yet our changes personally can have a resounding effect on our world even though we might not be the next Nelson Mandela. By changing ourselves and accepting our worth we will lead change in the world around us by example. Our children, our co workers, our friends and our relatives who bear witness to change can and will see that they too can do the same.
It is the woman who steps outside the box to open her own business that inspires her daughters to do the same. The kindness a grandfather extends to a neighbor that inspires his grandchildren to be the same "kind of man" and the teacher who takes the time to show her student just one more time how to divide that inspires that student to go on and take the time for others.
Sometimes that's all that's needed. Sometimes it is in the small gesture, that small word of encouragement that breaks the patterns at play in our world. We break the mold, break the silence with kindness, courage and compassion. This is how change occurs and how we ourselves are able to do it. A small ripple can extend a great deal of ocean when the wave it comes from is human kindness.
Here are some words from Nelson Mandela here this morning:
"He who is worthy of change is worthy of a life of peace. Kindness can only be bestowed by kind people. If you don't deem yourself as kind, what do you deem yourself as? Are you a holy man, a murderer? What label do you use and who do you believe yourself to be? We are all someone. We all have a preconceived idea about who we are.
We are not this or that. We just are. We are not our past unless we allow ourselves to be our past. We are not our future, because the future has not happened yet. We are a product of our society and upbringing. A society that dictates our thoughts until we find the courage and independence to become conscious of the power of our beings and decide to change ourselves. No one holds us captive there but us. No one can change anything about us, but ourselves. So you see the power you look to to make change is an illusion. The power is already within you. You just have to use it."
Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz; she looked to the Great Oz for the power to change her circumstances, not realizing she had the power with her all along.
