Doing Good Isn’t About Getting Even
While most of us have spent these months consumed by fear, we have also been given hope.
Hope that we will step down from the knife’s edge and into a cohesive peace. Hope that we can still do right by a world where so much wrong has been done. And that in turn makes many of us wonder what we can do. How can we contribute. Maybe we are not inventors or great leaders. Maybe we don’t hold sway over financial empires.
Even in thinking about all of the good people are doing for each other during the fires, all of the good others have done for each of us, we are unsure how we can repay them. Is a thank you enough? Is the plan to pay it forward if neighbouring communities get hit with disaster doing my part? Will any of us ever be able to repay the kindness offered to our families?
And if we weigh things up pound for pound, the answer is no. We won’t ever be able to repay what other people give us, and a thank you is not equal to a temporary home or the risking of life and limb.
So many of us get hung up on these thoughts. And then we sit idol, frozen in the place between being part of the problem because we aren’t being a force for change, and desperately wanting to do something.
But it’s okay. We don’t have to repay the people who helped us with exactly the same way. We don’t have to get ‘even’ on some scale of who is the better helper. These generous, kind hearted people were not handing out favours as debts to be repaid. There were no strings attached. They were doing what they felt was right in a terrible situation. They were doing what they could, usually happily, in order to make the world a better place.
Give the best of who you are with soulful intention.
So, while we can never repay a kindness given in the darkest hour, we can do what we can do. No action that comes from a truthful place, however small, is inadequate. After all, the most meaningful thing you can sometimes give is a smile, or a hug, or friendly ear. If the energy of the gesture is genuine, how can we compare what we have to offer with what anyone else has to offer? Whether we have one dollar to give or one thousand, if we are giving with our whole heart, it is enough because we are giving with soulful intention. We are putting our energy towards doing good.
Chances are most of us won’t save a family and their pets from a wildfire. Most of us won’t give anyone a home away from home for months at a time. But we can get creative with what we do give. We can make gestures and do random acts of kindness. The majority of us may not be on the front lines with the fire fighters and emergency livestock haulers and helicopter pilots but we can support them in their work. We can make life easier for them, so they can do their jobs better.
I believe that we all want to look back on our lives, on the moments when we had the opportunity to be heroes, and be at peace with how we acted. I believe that if our lives were played back to us, we would all want to feel happy about the person we were and find truth in what we stood for. In the constantly shifting world, I want to be able to say that I know I did the best I could.
And that is a choice we can all make. To do our best, and stop comparing. Stop trying to figure out if we’re doing enough. For the most part, we are all on the same side, and if we succeed, we will succeed together. We will change our world and ensure the progression towards a more spiritually fullfilled, enlightened, and synchronistic humanity.
