"Don't Come Here to Help Us"

"Don't come here to help us."

What? My jaw dropped. I was in Mexico hoping to volunteer my time to teach English and a lovely older man listened to my story and responded with, "Don't come here to help us"

As I listened to him expound, I felt something inside me changing. He explained how people come to Mexico from the US and Canada thinking they know how to help the locals. But really they are just patting themselves on the back for doing something to make themselves feel good about doing good in the world.

and they good they think they are doing may not be what is needed at all.

OK. So I am not easily offended, and as I put my ego behind me and tried to really listen to what this man was saying, I felt the truth of it even in my own motivation.

So what to do?

"Just come live with us," was his advice. "After a while, you will see what we really need and where you fit in."

Over the last 4 years I have taken this to heart. But living with the locals doesn't always make you feel like you are doing anything. However, as I look back, I can see how I have changed, how I have connected with people, how my heart has expanded and I have discovered that simply playing soccer with the kids in the streets is an act of love.

When we think of doing something for the greater good in the world, we often come up with a plan that doesn't have a face attached to it. We think in terms of ideas and concepts. But when we stop thinking and start living, when we GO to the people we want to touch and sit in their homes and listen to their stories, when we hear them, our hearts are broken and what flows out of us can't help but make a difference because it comes from a different place. It comes from love.

Even Small Fears Keep Us From Joy

I walked for miles down the streets of Chicago in my bare feet.

Someone stopped me and asked, "Isn't that dangerous?"

Dangerous? I never thought of it. I felt the cool ground and the way every part of my foot touched it. I felt my heightened awareness of my environment and I practically skipped along on the current of life flowing through the city.

Funny how even small fears keeps us from joy.

There are two forces in the world. Love, and its opposite, fear.

Consider carefully which one you give attention to. It will color your world.

Just Stand and Shine

This little saying-- I read it in a book called LIGHT IS THE NEW BLACK by Rebecca Campbell-- really impacted me today. 

It was one of those stab you in the chest kind of feelings. 

All my life I have had a need to do something to change the world. I've wracked my brain trying to come up with the best way possible to help people. And in all honesty, it has cause me much grief. I've felt guilty for not doing enough and  I've felt scattered because I haven't been able to pick one, singly directed way to have an impact on society. 

The revelation that came to me with this little picture brought such relief.

All I have to do is be light! 

Here is the really cool part... When I am doing what I love to do most, it lights me up. And when I light up, that light is contagious. Like a match kindling a candle. People see it and are ignited. Their natural response is to feel a burning inside--a mirrored reflection of my flame.

I thought I was supposed to "fix" everyone. But the truth is, I cant fix anyone. All I can do is be light. 

You see, I will walk away. People cannot rely on me continually. They must find Authentic  Light inside themselves in order for lasting change to take place. All I can do is light up the way by lighting up myself.

And so I stand up high and I shine.

The Beauty in Poverty...Can You See It?

I walk the streets and stop to admire an old fence, painted with the black of age. The lines are beautiful, the color rich, the patina authentic. This is what I see. But I also see the mold and the brokenness. It doesn't really guard much anymore. The home inside is dilapidated and covered in flowers. One might think the beauty here is about the long lost luster of a hacienda once stately. But it isn't. Its about the present. Its about the semi-crazy pruned black man who walks out from the eves and explains that he asked if he could live in the house so thieves would stop stealing the windows and door handles. Its about his intensity, his spoken belief of the importance of preserving the place, and about my knowledge that he really doesn't have any other place to live. That and his fan. Its about his one fan and his one light plugged in with a long extension chord to the house next door, so he can be cool in the heat and eat his supper in the light.

Be a Voice, Not an Echo

You know, each of us has something wonderful inside. Something precious that the world will be without if we do not share it. The trouble is, we are so caught up in being "outside" ourselves, looking at what the trends are and what our friends are saying and what is happening in the news, that we very rarely listen to the small still voice inside. 

Or if we do listen, we push it back down because we are afraid it isn't right or it isnt good enough. So we try to do what we THINK the world wants us to do. We try to fit in. We try to go the "approved" way of going. And in our fear, we lose our authenticity and become a hollow echo.

Stop.

Listen.

Do it right now. 

What do you hear?

Please....be brave enough to be true to that still small voice that whispers inside.

The world needs to hear your VOICE. Not another echo.

Give the World What You Have

Pickled Parrots

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled parrots.

I wanted to pickle a few parrots this morning.

They woke me up, squawking in the trees overhead as I was trying to sleep to the sound of the rain. There must have been a million of them. OK, well, maybe 50. But trust me, 50 parrots is enough. Now understand, I am so thankful and amazed to live on an island filled with these majestic green birds. They fly by twos from the hills down to the beach and back every day. 

But I thought parrots were supposed to talk. You know, say something meaningful. And I guess, just because I don't understand their native language, doesn't mean they aren't saying something meaningful. Now that I think about it, I guess maybe I should take the time to learn their language instead of expecting them to know mine. Isn't that what you are supposed to do when you live in a foreign country?