A Drop Becomes
By Caroline Giroux, MD
Do you wonder how each gesture, action or decision, big or small, may affect the world? Would you like to create a more positive impact in society but you don't know where to start? In this column, I would like to remind you of the foundational principle of mindful living, through pausing before each moment to optimize the action it contains and direct it towards the greater good. I invite each of us to see oneself not as an insignificant water droplet in a bucket, but as the drop that can build a whole ocean.
The question about how to make a difference has haunted me most of my life. As far as I can remember, I have also wished to be of service to those in need, to do my best, and in achieving so, I must pay attention to my decisions, micro or macro, and how they can impact the rest of the world. Even the simplest, most seemingly trivial gesture can have repercussions.
I am easily bothered and profoundly irritated when I see people littering. I vividly remember how stunned I was to witness an adult who was in the landscape of my adolescence throw a candy wrapper on the ground. It was a considerable shock to realize that being a grownup and having maturity were two completely different things.
Imagine everyone doing this, every person in the whole world at the same time. The planet would turn into a big garbage dump. It would be quite an eyesore too, an unbelievably offensive mess. At that point, I considered this person disqualified even before applying to the position of role model for me. I realized the importance of admiration at the core of affection. In order to love I must admire the person, especially on a spiritual level.
This was an obvious example. But there are more insidious decisions we make every day that have a damaging impact. The concept of recycling paper was a reality when I was in high school, I remember the huge cylindric bins where we would drop paper. I have done that ever since, religiously. I cannot help but think about the sacrifice of the trees, the lungs of our planet.
I am quite merciless when it comes to plastic, too. I cannot conceive leaving my house without my reusable shopping bags or baskets, traveling (to work or abroad) without my reusable bottle. I started bringing my own containers to restaurants in case I have leftovers to pack. It has become my new conditioning, and it would probably take more effort to try to go against this habit.
So, pause before doing or saying or purchasing or consuming anything. Try to imagine your action and multiply it by the world population. If the outcome would be disastrous, like everyone throwing away things that still function well, then you might want to revise and shift trajectory. Throwing away what is still usable, being obsessed with the new of everything, is not a desirable thing to do for the greater good.
That is why I am kind of a sustainability freak when it concerns recycling, or wasted food or water, for instance. Or textile waste, an awful source of pollution and one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases (for the record, I wear some of my teenage sons’ t-shirts that no longer fit them!). Because whenever I do something, I don’t see me doing it in isolation. I feel so deeply interconnected that I feel part of a bigger whole that should synchronize intentions, leading to non-destructive actions done by all.
Remember that everything you do or say can have an impact. Every day, every instant of your life. Whatever you think, express, or do — like helping the clerk at the grocery store bag your stuff, to share the load and allow them to be available to less-able customers, or bringing back your shopping cart to the right location, can lead to a chain of events.
If everyone smiled to at least one person a day, imagine what a more pleasant, relaxed and inviting our world could be. It could have a ripple effect that could shift a culture.
You have the potential to be an ocean, in conjunction with all the other droplets of water. In fact, you contain, you are, a whole ocean. When we start doing less harm and doing more good, we create habits that free up good energy to invest in things that are more creative. We can do interesting projects on a small scale that we could envision being magnificent if done on a larger scale. Your artwork multiplied by many could turn into a museum. Your mosaic multiplied by as many, a cathedral. We all have the ability to make a difference!
Especially in our current era, with so many dystopian disturbances and uncertainty of the future being to the max, I am pleased to remind you that you have more power than you can imagine. Staying grounded and not letting fear lead the show or divide or fragment our collective source of resilience and co-intelligence is essential and a good buffer to feelings of helplessness. If we persist in a tunnel vision or zoom in, it appears that one single vote might not make a difference, but everyone should try to zoom out and vote, thinking that everyone is doing it and therefore it will have an impact.
The ikigai, the Japanese word for “life of meaning,” “reason for being” or “motivating force,” is a very useful framework. I think we should strive to lead every moment of our lives so that they get closer towards the center, which is the intersection of what we love, what we are good at, what the world needs, and — to be able to afford homeowners’ insurance in California or pay PG&E bills — what talents we can be paid for.
For instance, never in the history of humankind have we found “kitchen remodel” to be at the center of the ikigai. Yet, it is a very common decision that could end up creating more misery. I don’t know about you, but I have rarely encountered people who were swimming in bliss from making this decision. They become irritable or depressed after weeks of living in a war-like zone. Of course, I am not saying no one should ever remodel their kitchen. But imagine every household not carefully thinking in terms of cost-benefits for them and the rest of the world, deciding all at once that their kitchen is no good, that’s got to leave a quite awful carbon footprint.
We will make mistakes, but we should use each poor decision as a learning opportunity. Each one of us learning will in turn bring humanity in the right direction, towards an expanded awareness, a higher vibrational state.
Make any choice as if everyone else was copying you! Inspire other water droplets to join you and form an ocean together.
And try to do everything in a state of joy or peace if you can. Speak up if you see injustice so that your voice can join others. When we hum and sing together, harmonizing as elevated beings for the greater good, that will be a divine choir.
