Monday Mantra: Life As We Know It

A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation".

Every Monday I will post a new thought, idea, or focus for the week. When you need a breather from life, when you need a little inspiration, or when you're about to jump over the conference table and strangle your co-worker, remember the mantra.

Monday Mantra: One person can make many differences

Society6

I'm sorry I'm late with this. Again. It's just that this time of year makes me want to experience, well, everything. There's the shopping and the eating and the cider and the hot cocoa, the baking and the smells (oh, the smells...pine and cinnamon and mint) everywhere you go. There's the making your list and checking it twice, and my possible career with Santa because I love making lists and checking them twice. There's movie watching to do and friends to hang out with and, of course, the shopping.

There's buying new wrapping paper and bags, then organizing my wrapping paper and bags in my special Wrapping Paper and Bags section of my house, all Monica Gellar like. There's the GF pumpkin bread and cherry pie and Thai soup to make. Then there's the very important eating of the GF pumpkin bread, cherry pie, and Thai soup. There's the music and the singing, the decorating, the annual marathon Lord of the Rings watching to do. There's the puppies to walk and the crisp air to take in and the non-changing of the leaves (damn you, Phoenix!) to watch. Oh, and did I mention the shopping? *big happy sigh*

There's just so much life to live right now, you guys. So. Much. Life. To. Live.

Well, all of that has taken my attention and made me realize at 9:30pm that I still haven't done this other little thing called My Normal Monday Blog Post. So, here we go...


Along with all of my Life Living activities, I've been doing a lot of thinking about how best to live life. There's been some daydreaming, too. For instance, the other night when I was in the land of no technology (Payson) and I only had my weak Wi-Fi connection on my phone to entertain me at 12:30am because I couldn't sleep due to who-knows-what sounds coming from the forest behind my house, I came upon the Instagram account of Jedidiah Jenkins. I happened to find him because he's part of a group of people I deeply admire, the making-the-world-a-better-place crew that consists of Sophia Bush, Lauren and Aaron Paul, and a dozen or so other awesome people who use their platform to not just talk about change, but make change happen. All. The. Time. I love it.

In my semi-sleep lacking delirium, I started to daydream (er, nightdream?) about the group welcoming me in to their inner circle of awesomeness. You know, all of us hanging out around a fire under the stars, talking about life and the world and how amazing it is to be BFFs. It occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't be good enough to be in their group. I mean, they really do seem to be other-worldly kind and loving. I don't think I could live up to that. I'm flawed. I judge when I don't want to, I compare, I fall short in many ways. Although I right myself when I've gone wrong, I'm...not perfect. For some reason I thought I would need to be, in this daydream. To fit in. To belong.

Later that day, I read about Rosa Parks and how the world has changed, slowly, for the better. How we might not realize that because, thanks to TV and social media and radio, we hear all the terrible things, all the time. We hear about the bombings, the beatings, the murders. What we forget, however, is how bad things used to be. How bad they're not anymore.

Women can now vote. People of different colors are allowed to use the same restrooms. Humans live longer lives than ever before. We, the people of the world, care about each other. We rage against injustice when we see someone in a far off land being mistreated. We rise up and raise money for any and every cause we can possibly think of. We work together, across millions of miles, all the time to make this world a better place. And even though there are still terrible things happening, even though we still have battles to fight, I am proud of how far we've all come. I could say I'm proud to be an American, and I am, but what I'm really thinking is how proud I am to be part of humanity right now. To be part of a world where people like Rosa Parks lived and fought and changed things for the better. To be part of a world that is still flawed, but fighting. Fighting to mend the wounds, to fix the cracks, to find a better way. I am proud to be flawed, too. My flaws make me work harder to be better, to be kinder, to try try try.

I hope you all can see this, too. I hope you can see past the tragedies in the world to the good that also exists. I hope you are doings things and living lives that lead to better things. I hope when you see terrible things on the news you realize that yes, one person can make a difference. I hope you realize you could be that person.

I also hope you don't limit yourself. Not to one cause, not to one action that can make the world better. Not to one goal, not to one path, not to one single daydream. You are capable of many, many great things. I hope you realize this, too.