How Simple Things Change The World
~Dennis Kwiatkowski
It’s the simple things—the little things that often make the biggest difference.
A friend of mine had been experiencing extreme pain in his foot when he walked. It worsened as days and weeks passed, and there were no funds to see a podiatrist. My friend imagined, in his mind, the most dire causes for the problem. When he finally saw a regular doctor, the cause turned out to be a very small, hardly noticeable, simple callous positioned just where it would cause the most discomfort and pain and throw off the process of walking so as to affect the entire foot. Treating the callous was amazingly simple, and the pain vanished immediately.
Two things are apparent from this homely example:
- Things are often not as horrible as they seem. What appears to be an impossibly large problem often has a simple solution, and a small change makes a big difference. It behooves us to stay centered, to trust our consciousness, our inner knowing that all will work out.
- A small thing can cause a great deal of pain. Thus, a thoughtless remark or a seemingly casual unkindness can produce a rather considerable and large destructive effect. Developing our awareness and kindness will help to make us builders instead of destroyers.
We can see the power of a shift in one of the world’s religions that, for a while, attracted international attention. Pope Francis inherited an institution plagued by scandal, hypocrisy, and corruption. Many wondered if it could regain credibility. However, Pope Francis chose to exemplify and focus on humility, kindness, non-judging, non-ostentation, helping the poor, and caring for those in need—in other words, a simple shift in emphasis to what the Master Jesus actually taught—and the essential type of principles at the basis of every great religion and philosophy.
Many people feel that their own individual efforts are too small to make any kind of real difference in the world. But this is inaccurate. As mystic writer George Buletza once said: We live in a vast cosmic sea—the universe is a vast spectrum of electromagnetic energy. A change in one part of the spectrum affects the whole.
We see this idea reflected even in popular culture, in motion pictures. The wizard Gandalf, in the first Hobbit movie, states that some believe that it is only great power that is strong enough to hold back evil, but that it is actually the little deeds of everyday ordinary people, or, as he says it, “simple acts of kindness and love” that “keep the darkness at bay”.
Indeed, every time we make a shift in our awareness, every time we struggle to “get it right”, every time we deal with the cards we’ve been dealt, to understand as best we can the bigger picture of life, every time we actually “get it”—even if only partially or for a moment – the world changes for the better.
In this time of rapid change, intensity, and tumult, when so many are suffering and in need, we who are a part of this vast spectrum of energy (along with everyone else) – we can, through our simple meditative efforts and acts of kindness, and love and caring, and doing of the small things, the little things—we can help to create a ripple in the spectrum that works to transform our world. It happens automatically and effortlessly, if we trust the knowingness within and if we but let the divine nature within us direct and inspire our course and actions