Just a speck

The world is burning right now and I don’t know about you, but I feel helpless. As an empathetic person, I’ve spent a good deal of the past few years with daily low key anxiety bundled in my throat and chest and it doesn’t seem to be getting better. I see the news and I want to cry and I want to dig a hole in my backyard and not come out and I want to rage, and I feel frozen and end up doing nothing.

It doesn’t help that I have no stomach for politics. If I had a say, if anyone wanted to listen to me, I’d say burn it all down and start over. What we have isn’t working and while the idea back in the beginning had merit, it clearly failed. And since no one is listening to me, and I can’t fix the world, I’ve started to look closer to home. And for me, that's my girls. I can’t control them, I don’t want to, but I can teach them. And right now, I think teaching them is the best thing I can do.

Here’s what I’m teaching them.

You are NOT better than anyone based on your skin color.

You are NOT better than anyone based on your gender or sexuality.

You are NOT better than anyone based on your religion (whatever one you choose).

You are NOT better than anyone based on what is in your bank account.

This life you were given, it’s not a contest. It’s not a competition. You WERE NOT put on this earth to be better than anyone. You were put on this blue and green rock to EXPERIENCE life. There is no prize for the life you live. What is important is how you act.

How kind you are.

How helpful you are.

How hard you work.

How you love.

These are things you will and SHOULD be remembered for. Not everyone on this planet will leave it better than it was before they arrive, but everyone should make sure to not leave it worse than it was before they arrived.

I think people forget these things. And I think it’s about time I remember this all too. The universe is vast and I am just a speck. We are all just specks of dust, probably time to remember that.