The gathering of delphiniums in the middle of my looped driveway are a striking mix of indigo and violet, and when my head is rioting against all the injustices of the entire planet, I step very close to them and let them quench and consume my vision entirely.
The more I learn about the world, the more I realize how imperative it is to think smaller. To shrink ones focus to one breathtaking blue flower.
It seems antithetical to most of our favourite narratives. We all want the hero’s journey, marching out into the world to collect our victories against villains that are distilled evil and easily identified.
The American dream set loose on the open frontiers of the internet, in search of the purest forms of righteousness, has mangled our amygdalas. Being exposed to the entire world's most gruesome drama has strangled out airtime for positive stories - like an algae bloom sucking all the oxygen out of the water.
I am someone who gets caught up in the large scope of things. I love thinking about the concept of infinity. I love pondering global issues and travelling the world. But where I start to lose hope is when I compare my drop of impact to the ocean of problems I hear about.
During an environmental literature class at university, we argued till we were blue in the face about the myriad of ways humans are destroying the environment. The day before, I had gone to the beach and picked up litter, and I realized that my one small action had done more for the environment than an entire semester learning about all the ways it was under attack.
Learning is vital, but it’s meant to be utilized. If I am consuming so much news that I start to lose hope for humanity and forget to actually go outside and pick up some litter, I need to go back and talk to the delphiniums. I need to feed my neighbours' cats while they're away. I need to take all the regenerative practices I’ve learned about and tend to my little garden. I need to show up for a town hall, volunteer somewhere, or call my Oma and make sure she’s doing okay.
If people started to focus on their own communities, families, and friends, and took realistic actions to help the land and creatures they co-exist with, things might seem a little less hopeless. There’s no use feeling frozen with dread about the state of things, while all your unique helpfulness sits unused.
We don’t all have ideas and solutions to these looming global issues right now, nor are all of us global leaders or decision makers, but if I don’t water my flowers, they will die. It’s not good letting the unwieldly weight of the world we see on our screens stop us from tending to what we know.
