Friday, May 16, 2008

The Global Food Crisis

Those were the 100-pt black letters staring me in the face when I sat down to eat my lunch with the US News & World Report today. Sitting on my back porch in the sunshine, with birds chirping and roses blooming and a fresh salad to savor, I had just been thinking how my life is pretty much perfect. How I'm happier than I've been in a very long time, or at least more consistently happy. And yet how I've had this nagging thought in the back of my mind, wondering if the reason I'm happy is because I'm comfortably numb. Wondered if my state of contentment has anything to do with the fact that as I've settled back into this American life, I've gradually stopped checking CNN every day, and can't remember the last time I visited Alertnet. I have fewer and fewer friends working on frontline projects overseas, and my connections to the reality of "others" has become fewer and farther between.

It's hard. How do you engage with the world right where you are -- be wholly present -- yet remain deeply connected somewhere else?

As I've settled admittedly gratefully into this more normal life, I don't think a day goes by that I don't still hear the echo of words spoken by Dr. Gary Parker... "There must be more to life than the values of personal peace and prosperity." He spoke it humbly, as a statement. A question. His own way of life.

I believe this. I don't want to forget this. I want to live this way.

This year and a half has been about finding peace... freedom... focus for my future. I don't know about the last objective, but the first two have definitely been found, felt and incorporated into the fiber of my everyday life. And I won't let go of them quickly. It's from that place of peace and freedom that I find myself to be most effective and most authentic. And it's my belief that it's from that place I can give the most to the world. I just can't forget that the rest of the world is still out there.

When I left the non-profit world one of my primary objectives was to get to a place where I could give more, do more, for more causes. And amazingly, I think it's coming to pass. Currently I am directly involved with 6 organizations/companies that I share deep motivation with -- to make a difference in the world. And there are a long list of potential others. It's sometimes been difficult to watch full-time opportunities go by and to keep saying no, but as I have pondered these opportunities I keep coming back to the same place... I can do more from here. From this place of freedom, I have so much more to give.

This may be a season or it may be a lifestyle -- I don't know -- but for now it feels right.

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