Life is very good for me right now. In a way, too good. Which is a first world problem. As soon as I want to say ‘life is awesome!!’ I start thinking it’s not as awesome for everyone as it is for me. Which means deep down it’s not as awesome as I think it is for me either. In the past, I stuck my head in the sand when I felt like this. As I thought ‘there’s so many issues out there though, so many things I could be doing, it’s all too hard, arggghhh’.
In recent times, I’ve changed my thinking. I *think* I won’t be properly happy until I feel I’m doing more things with more purpose. Of course the idea of what is ‘purposeful’ is a relative thing. That’s why I’m saying ‘more purposeful for me’. For me that means being more directly involved in helping other people and doing some good for society in general. I’m not going to go into what exactly, as partly I haven’t figured that out yet. Because it needs to be things I’m passionate about and obviously I will enjoy doing.
I would get stressed about it, but these days I generally remember that I can’t save the whole world, but everything I do do, is something.
This has been coming for quite some time. But this blog post has partly been inspired by the TEDxPerth event I went to last night. (link to TED and link to TEDxPerth facebook, real site coming soon).
I learnt about Transition Culture in this TED talk by Rob Hopkins. And then we had some group discussion.
Anyway, I could talk a lot about the whole night, and I might in the future, but for now this:
We discussed reasons we’ve had in the past, not to do ‘something’:
Being judged (Hippy!)
I’m just one person, I can’t change the whole world.
I already do more than most people
If they’re not doing it, why should I?!
I’ll do something once…the house is flooded. We’ve run out of oil…etc.
Ignorance – I don’t actually know enough about a lot of stuff
And there’s probably more.
Well, as said above, times for me have changed.
“If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change” – yes, yes, Michael Jackson.
I have plans that I don’t want to go into publicly yet, but here are some small things I’m doing.
I am trying to be an ecotarian. At the moment that means I’m eating a LOT less meat than I ever have (not quite managing 100% vegetarian but close. Tonight I had beef for the first time in months (I think) and regretted it, my stomach hurt, ha!), and I’m trying to shop local (see this video about Woolies and Coles by ABC’s Hungry Beast), and buy less ready made stuff. But obviously I can change a lot more in my life: slowly but surely, everything helps.
And I’m looking into volunteer work and have started by joining the Big Help Mob. Oh, and for fun and exercise and a good cause I’m doing the HBF Run for a Reason, help me raise money for Lifeline!
This all makes sense to me and I’m feeling positive. I’ve started caring less about what other people think, but not completely. I would love it if you left a comment and shared your thoughts on this with me :) And remember this was written at midnight after a long day :p
In other news…Bloggers meetup tonight (Wednesday 21 April) at the Brass Monkey in Northbridge from about 7pm. Message me for details or see the facebook page.
