Earth Day is almost here! I’ve waited a lifetime to write this post.
(Let me explain…)
Since I was a little girl, I wanted to help people and the planet. I studied the birds in the backyard, I had heart-to-hearts with the cats, and I dreamed of writing books that inspired change.
Today, I’m the one carrying a notebook everywhere I go to catch my thoughts before they disappear, just as I’m the one making hairspray out of organic honey and bringing my own to-go containers to restaurants.
These little things don’t just feel good to do. They feel true. (Even when friends jokingly ask when I’ll earn my merit badge.)
But…
For all the effort to make a difference, something was missing for a long time. In the back of my heart, there was the little ache from that feeling that something wasn’t quite lining up.
It felt like there was some other way I was meant to serve the world.
I just couldn’t figure out what that was.
Over the years, I’ve had a lot of false starts, pauses, and pivots trying to find that missing piece. Underneath it all was my wish for everyone to find what lights their heart so that we might all light up the world together.
And then this winter, it clicked.
Start with your own path, I thought.
Here’s the path: Finding my way to my true self, honoring and healing the wounds beneath my judgments and fears, and aligning with what lights my spirit.
And this is why: So I can do the good work I was meant to do while I walk the planet. And help others to do the same.
The closer to my truest self I get, the more clearly I see that my tools for making a difference are the words and pictures born from my hands and heart and my unshakeable belief in the human spirit.
I believe from the bottom of my soul that this is how I can serve the world.
And this brings me to Earth Day.
My heart aches over the state of the world, yet I still have hope. In the moments that I feel alone, lost, and ineffective, when I could easily be swept away in my own shame for being part of what’s happening to the planet, I remember why this matters so much to me. Love.
So, I’m going to follow that love. I’ll rise up bigger and taller and braver than I was yesterday, and I’m going to repay Mother Earth her love with love.
All I have to offer are my words, my art, my love, and my hope. And I offer them now to help heal our hurting planet and her people. This is one way I believe I can do real, good work in this world.
In honor of Earth Day, I have a few posts circulating the universe:
How We Can Save the Planet With Loving-Kindness: An Earth Day Meditation on Elephant Journal and Earth Day is April 22. How Will You Spend It? on Thrive Global.
AND I’m opening up the Love for Mother Earth fundraiser benefiting Rainforest Alliance. I’ve wanted to do a fundraiser benefiting the planet for forever, and today, I begin.
I set the goal at $1,000. There’s no deadline. Maybe it will take years. Maybe days. How long doesn’t matter. Just that I show up with my tools in hand and make the difference I can.
This fundraiser will remain live until we reach the goal, and when we do, together we can choose a new charitable causeto support.
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