..and then there’s me. I get really overwhelmed by the amount of people that need help all over the world. In every town, including mine, there are people with no home, no food, dying of cancer, as well as defenseless animals and children suffering, while I have way more than I need to survive. Though I give of both my money and my time to try to bring a little comfort or a bit of joy to someone who is having a hard time, I feel as if I gave away all I had and worked until I died, the badness would just keep multiplying. Instead of gaining joy from giving, I was unknowingly experiencing anxiety from feeling I can’t do enough, I can’t help them all. I could spend hours on Facebook reading and watching all the videos and donating to all the causes, but still feel overwhelmed because I can’t get to them all. Where do I set a limit? How do eliminate the anxiety of not being able to do it all?
First I looked at my personality and the way I react and respond to things. Next I looked at the things I’m good at and figured out why I was good at them. I came up with the fact that I like systems and schedules. I operate well in framework. I decided to apply this to holiday gift giving and donating and made a plan. For every gift I buy someone, I must donate the $10 to help someone else. I picked a group here on the cape that I am impressed with. Everyday, all year, not just at Xmas, on the cover of the Cape Cod Times is a story called the Needy Fund. It helps people here on Cape in an emergency. Today money was given to a dad to repair his car so he can keep his job. I can donate online easily and read everyday about the people I’m helping. I wanted something between a $10 yearly donation and helping the whole world. This seems to fit me, and includes a system and schedule that I work so well inside of. I can’t help them all, but I know I can help more than one. As a matter of fact, I’m going to adopt it as a year round practice. Whenever I give a gift, I’ll give a donation to the Needy Fund.
It’s a terrible thing that we have to put all the badness in the world into perspective. In a perfect world, there wouldn’t be so much of it and we COULD help them all. I always think of what the great selfless helper of all time, Mother Theresa, said, “If you can’t feed them all, feed just one.”
And so, as another day goes by, I hope everyone “feeds just one”, and….I have written.
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