Thinking Beyond Yourself

Sometimes its not easy to look beyond your own little corner of the world, to look beyond yourself. Being at Children's Hospital makes you look beyond your own world. You see bald headed children hooked to multiple i.v's, you see children struggling to take a step, struggling to breath. Cries from other rooms let you know that pain is out in many corners of the world. There are also happy faces, faces of children sitting near wagons full of pillows, toys, special blankets, at the front exit...waiting for the car to arrive that will take them home. Children stepping lively to visit the unit they had spent so much time at, healed now, no need to fear the hospital, but still feeling connected, their little world made bigger by illness.
In the blog world, we recount the events in our little world, in our corner of this planet. Stepping out from time to time to bring to attention something we learned about another place, another culture. Perhaps a need in the world.
When our own corner becomes so weighted down with our own interests, our own pursuits, our own collections of things, our world grows small and tends to spin on its own. Missing so much around us. We might even fail to examine the needs of the world at large and in consequence, fail to share in the joys of steps made to make this world more balanced.
Its not new to any of my readers that I advocate simple living, I have since day one. Simple living is freedom. It is letting go of some of the burden of ownership, letting go of the "oh I want that too" feelings. Life teaches you that there is always something more than what you have, no matter how much wealth you have. I love the concept of owning only what you can take with you when you stand up. Its a monks view of ownership. A bowl, a bag and not much more. Of course my life is not the monks life, my calling is different, but from that outlook, I can glean an understanding of just what a person NEEDS in life. Yes, one enjoys the pretty things, I know that and I am not advocating to live stark and naked, one look around here and I know that. But to grasp the full meaning of the difference between NEED and WANT. To have life uncomplicated by possessions in excess. To be able to see the floor of your home, to have empty corners, and nothing by the windows so you can stand by the window and gaze out them, loosing yourself in the view. To find beauty in a wall space not crammed with things you need to dust and maintain. To have a home comfortable, home like yet so uncluttered that it doesn't take you hours of cleaning every week. To have clothes you need, not piles in a corner that you try on and then say, "naw, that doesn't look right". So they fall in a heap with the other things you bought on a whim, in an emotional moment, trying to feed some emotional need.
When we are unburdened, we walk lighter, not shoulders bent under the guilt of how much we spent when we should not have, shelves filled with reminders of why the credit card bill is so high. Things that delighted us for a moment, now in a heap or collecting dust. We de-clutter, take to a charity, have a yard sale, remove the things we "had to have" and the cycle begins a new. That money spent, the money we really have, not the credit card debt kind of money, that money can change lives forever, feed empty stomachs, feed minds, bring water to the thirsty, and that is the kind of thing that feeds our emotions for ever, not just a moment. Thinking beyond ourselves. Look around your home, I have only to look at my fabric, $4 a yard maybe $8. How many yards sit there ? 50 maybe, maybe more, well there are the plastic bins too. Could it be 100 yards, I cringe writing it. Do I even need more quilts ? Well I make some for others, but the fabric I have never seems right for those, so I buy more fabric. 100 yards, wow. Maybe close to $1,000 for fabric that sits on the shelf waiting. Lets look beyond myself here. I saw the thing about buying a goat or a cow for a family so they can have a little milk for their family and perhaps sell some. In the third world, (what a phrase for modern people, we divide the world up, really its divided into the haves and have nots) a cow or a goat can make all the difference, but when I saw the price of a goat I though, "I don't have that money right now". Oh but I did, spent it on stuff in my own little corner of the world, my own wants. For most religions in the world, we are taught its all about compassion. Give your coat to the man in need sort of thinking. Compassion.
What would happen if we all thought beyond ourselves ? Not just once a week in church, not just when the feed the hungry children commercial comes on TV, but all the time. When we see a mother at the check out stand having to put back some food because she doesn't have enough money. When we find out the old people in the nursing home have holes in their sweaters or no phone to call loved ones, because their money is all used to pay for their care. Instead of buying the pooch those cute boots or sweater, that it doesn't need but that you think is cute, well instead think about a child, the child with no sweater or warm coat living in the inner city, child of a drug mother. Think about the father going to the restaurant to get a 50 cent cup of coffee and the tiny containers of cream made for coffee, to later feed to his hungry baby. His choices maybe not the most wise, but its what he knows. Think of that tiny child sucking down coffee creamer mixed with water in her bottle. Go spend your money to see the movie SICKO. It will change you, make you think beyond yourself. We are not alone on this planet. Even if you sit alone at night in your own corner of the world, there is so much beyond. A childs hungry cry is but a whisper away on the wind.
"Live simply so that others might simply live" ! And as a side benefit, you find so much more time with less to do more for others. Let compassion motivate you.
I am always so delighted to read of one more person joining this simple living movement. One step at a time, your own world changes. I too am taking one more step each day to think beyond myself.

Pictures from last weeks hike.