small change

My friend believes in change, she has big thoughts and aspirations, she writes eloquently about politics and offers up ways to bring opposing sides together to create a greater good, a true peace. I admire her for this it is not something I am wired for. In fact my exact words to her where, “I’d really like to be the kind of person who called their representative and signed petitions but our system it just so broken that it doesn’t do any good.” And the moment after the sentence landed out there in the ether of our discussion I felt a little broken hearted, I had just said out load that I had no faith. Have I given up on humanity, have I become so discouraged by our government that I have given up on positive change happening for people; red, blue or otherwise color coded. I left our brief conversation at the breakfast table and headed off to my studio to dust away cobwebs and mop the floor for a restorative class that evening. As I swept and tidied I pondered my friend’s belief in the system and her unwavering belief that we can change the government and what exactly am I doing to bring about good things and then I went up stairs. Standing in the loft and looking out over the studio I was washed over with a feeling of love and I thought to myself “I hope this feeling never goes away, I hope to always be overwhelmed by this place,” this place that has so much of my spirit in it this place that I created with the hopes of creating a very small change. The kind of change that happens inside of someone, a small shift on a very deep level that can then trickle out into the world. It’s like this:

The other day my friend and I were driving through a shopping center. We stopped to let a couple cross in the cross walk, it was a shortish balding man with a little beer belly pushing a wheelchair with a woman (assumed to be his wife) in it, both carry armfuls of shopping bags and smiling and laughing with their entire beings. We watched and smiled back and I commented on how happy they must be about life right now and my friend said how that made her day and her smile. And all they were doing was shopping and being together but their happiness affected us and brought us happiness, joy you might even say.

That story came back as I pushed the mop around my studio making ready for my student to come that evening and to hopefully leave a little happier, or peaceful or contented. That is the kind of change I have faith in, small change within our community and among the people you encounter everyday. Just imagine what kind of happiness you could inspire if you decided to smile for day, or what if you practiced peace for a day or non-judgment or compassion. All of these are principles I offer up to my student and I haven’t mastered all of them, I’m still on a journey just like they are. But what I sincerely hope is that within this place they can feel all that love I feel and that they can feel supported and safe enough to find their own bliss and maybe share that bliss, even if it comes only in the form of a smile.