21-27 May 2018

People show they care on small and large scales. Cooking a meal for yourself, partner or family, buying a bunch of flowers for someone when they are feeling down, taking out or bringing in your neighbours garbage bins, RSVP’ing to an invitation by the requested time or contributing to a cause that improves the planet and the people within through your words or actions are all signs of caring.

As always there is balance and moderation in every virtue and we all need to remember that we are included in the mix when we practice caring. The reason for this is that if we do not care for ourselves first we may find that we do not have the ability to care for others or contribute to caring for our world.

There is wisdom in ensuring there is balance and moderation in everything and when caring for yourself you are mindful of who you are and who you want to be, you do not provide permission for others to abuse you by taking on their verbal insults or physical assaults. Justice is the consequence of reporting those actions to the appropriate authorities and ensuring that consequences to negative actions are tendered to.

Having said that there are times when individuals who have been elected to guide, support or lead us fail to make decisions for the benefit of the majority of people and the advancement of humanity and prioritise their own personal interests instead. Discernment is required here.

There are times we care for people or things on an individual basis but there are also times when collectively we also show what matters to us and what we care for. As Howard Zinn once said, “Small acts when multiplied by millions of people can transform the world.”