mindin' my own business is a full time job

if I ever wrote a country music song, that's what I'd call it.

It really is a full time job to take responsibility for my own thoughts and feelings, which are, of course, the true generators of my experience in each moment. That's why you rarely if ever hear me riffin' on politics, the environment, injustice, war, and other stuff like that. I'm too swamped trying to clean up my own messes to tackle complex international issues.

Also, when I do manage to successfully calm my mind and open my heart, it's not the global issues that capture my attention from that state of centered balance.

It's the lady down the block who just had a baby. It's the friend on the other end of my phone line who needs to talk and be comforted. It's the elderly woman in a public restroom who is struggling with the heavy door, or the mom whose kid is having a major tantrum in the grocery store.

So my hunch is that I am just not wired to focus on global or national stuff. To passionate activist-type folks, I may seem ignorant, selfish, ungrateful or like a poor citizen of this planet.

Nevertheless, my contribution to humanity seems to be no more or less glamorous than offering a hand, a shoulder, a smile, or an ear to those around me when I am centered enough to do so. Yes, it's small scale. But just maybe the ripples from these tiny acts eventually join with others, maybe even something you have done, and become bigger, more powerful waves of compassionately inspired change. I dunno for sure. But I hope so.