small.
Give Back
It's hard to do.
Even in my small world.
My tendency is to compare myself to those giving in big ways. Those serving substantially. Helping extremely needy causes. If you tilt your head back and squint you can see them up on the pedestal.
It's easy to look right past my version of small giving. Treat it as insignificant. To view big and great as the champion. The hero.
Rather than glamorizing big, bigger and biggest I'm trying to embrace my small. Accepting the significance of the life that is set before me. The service for which I am called.
Giving back. Serving. Volunteering.
It's hard. Big or small.
And I don't always get it right. That is for sure.
No matter the size of your influence in order to give back you have to fork over something. Time. Effort. Energy.
This is hard.
Being of service requires sacrifice. It might require me to think differently. To feel differently. To love differently.
On top of that it can be uncomfortable. Inconvenient. Maybe even irritating.
Most likely it will be unappreciated.
Appreciation isn't the point though. My heart is the point.
Am I willing to give a bit of myself to someone else? Something else?
I'll admit it's a struggle. I'm selfish. "Me first" is a phrase that rings constantly in my self-centered ear.
It's like a security blanket that I cling to for fear I won't have enough. Or worse put my head under it and believe that someone else will fill the need.
The antidote? Let go of the blanket, push back my ego and find ways to give.
Just start.
Small is enough.
The world is drowning in needs so I don't have to look far. Maybe start with my own family and move out from there.
I believe that each small service does not go unnoticed. No act of kindness is overlooked. No charitable endeavor is forgotten. And each "small" does add up to a greater whole.
In the process of giving you never know whose life might change. You never know whose heart will grow. You never know whose character will mature.
Come to find out....it's my own.
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”