Thinking Big
Here we are well into 2024 already and issues continue to mount up in the face of numerous challenges to the stability and sustainability of our planet home. We like many other countries are in an election year and so are daily invited to listen to another initiative or policy meant to deal with one of our mountain of dysfunctional problems across our society. This is happening on a global level but also on many other levels all the way down to us as an individual.
The usual response is typically piecemeal and reactive, two rather poor strategies but common when dealing with major issues. Our logic tells us to reduce the problem we face to a size we believe we can deal with and then, once we have broken it down to small bits, try to solve each part and put it all back together – and the horse turns into a donkey. There is another approach to problem solving which is to take in the issues in their entirety and then ask ourselves the question: How would we need to grow and expand in consciousness and awareness to find solutions to the whole?
This is what we are all being called to do, to expand our consciousness and grow. All of us will encounter problems in our lives and at some point we will search for an answer but find none. What we are then being called for is to go through a birth process and expand and then within that new awareness we will find the answer and more. This is the process of our evolution; we can enjoy that new level for a while but sooner or later another issue will arise to which we cannot find a good and sustainable answer. Then the time has come for another step in consciousness and this cycle will continue until we quit, and then we really quit because the issue we refuse to deal with will typically become the reason for our death. And that appears to be the truth on all levels.
We seem to have grown poor at dealing with the challenges that face us, and our approach seems to be too timid and reactive. Thinking small will not help the situation. We need to divert some of our energy away from trying to build a safe and comfortable life and put it towards reaching for a vision for our future. The Bible states that without vision we will die and that certainly seems to be true. Going for a vision is thinking big for it certainly takes buckets of courage, a willingness to stand out for all the best reasons and maybe even a few bad ones. But we need to shed our skins, break out of our self-imposed confinement and reach for the stars. It is a time for expansion and growth with heart for only in that will we find lasting solutions. The time has come to stand up and be counted, to reach out to our brothers and sisters to do what we know deep in our hearts is the right thing to do.
This Saturday is Random Acts of Kindness day. That would be a good time to dare to think big and start by reaching out of our comfort zone and extending ourselves to those around us. It all starts with us; politicians and religious leaders may not do it and we waste time waiting for others, so it is time to fish or cut bait. We don’t need to know exactly what to do or how to do it. What is asked of us is our willingness to make a difference, and that very willingness opens us up to a myriad of possibilities and providence begins to move in our favour. After that it is about our passion and our love, both of which are natural to each one of us and open us up further. Then all we need to do is to handle the excitement and the suspense.
With love,
Jeff