With every news alert that flashes across my phone, my anxiety level grows. My heart is breaking for the people of Ukraine, and I worry about what will happen next as the situation continues to escalate. I have the same feeling when I see the local news too, with violence and suffering all too often happening close to home. I am someone that likes FIX things, to DO something when there’s a problem, but these days, the problems feel too big, too scary to try to fix. It’s hard to know what to do or where to start.
When the world feels like this, which is too often lately, I am trying to hold on to two different mantras that I heard from two of my favorite authors/podcasters:
1. What you would do for all, do for one. (Annie F. Downs)
2. Do the next needed thing. (Sharon McMahon)
Annie has referenced this quote several times (and forgive me that I don’t remember who she is quoting right this second) when talking about current events. To me, when I hear “What you would do for all, do for one”, it means that while I don’t have the financial resources or logistical resources to go in and solve the issue myself, I can give what I can to one of the organizations that is on the front lines, literally and figuratively, doing the work I wish I knew how to do. I can pick one person or one organization to help or to make a donation to, knowing that I am doing what I wish I could for all for the one I have selected.
In a podcast about the Jeanes Foundation, Sharon said that their internal unofficial motto was “Do the next needed thing.” The Jeanes Foundation was established to improve the educational opportunities for rural African-American students in the early 1900’s, clearly a daunting and gigantic task. Instead of being overwhelmed by the immensity of the problem, the people in the organization focused on doing the next needed thing for the specific school or community they were working on at the time. Instead of being paralyzed by every thing that needed to be done, they focused on knocking things out one at a time, dealing with what was in front of them.
We are powerless over so many things in the world – but we are not helpless. Today, I am focusing on doing for one and doing the next needed thing, and tomorrow, I’ll do the same.
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