We Are a Web

My new year's resolution was to read a poem a day. So far I have done so, and enjoyed it thoroughly. It's been easy to include reading a short poem as part of my morning ritual. But alas and alack, with all that's happened of late on this planet of ours, I sometimes feel as if I'm Nero playing the violin while Rome burns. It's hard not to feel useless and unable to help as so many people suffer all around the world. But feeling bad doesn't help anyone, either. So what can I do? What can anyone do? Offering monetary donations is one way to feel as if you're doing something. But the results of that sort of generosity aren't always immediately discernible. Who knows where all the money goes when people donate to worthy causes?
Since I'm not in a position to give enough money that I feel would make a difference, but have done anyway - which is a good thing - I've wondered what else I can do. So I turn to what I always do in such circumstances. I try my best to be a better person. To be grateful for what I have. To be kinder and more compassionate on a daily, work-a-day basis. I don't have to go half way around the world to see people who suffer and toil. They live right next door to me and everybody everywhere. To quote one of my all-time favourite heroes, Mahatma Gandhi, I shall try to be the change I want to see in the world. Doing that engages me all the time, and it makes me feel as if I'm continually helping in some small way, rather than just throwing some money a couple of times into a bucket and then promptly forgetting about it.
Think globally, and act locally. By locally I mean personally as well, treating a stranger or a stray dog the way you would like to be treated. It does matter. Oh yes it does.
Unfortunately, even if the entire world's population suddenly became caring, peaceful, and responsible, we'd still have to cope with things we cannot control, like the weather, or Mother Earth rising up and showing her awesome, terrifying power. We've been trying to subdue the earth for thousands of years now, and she has not taken it lying down. Mother Nature always has the last word, and always will. We can't undo all the damage we've done, but we can stop doing more, and only if everyone gets on board with that. Sadly, I don't think that's going to happen soon. But I pray, and act according to the way I wish the world to be - or at least I try. I also recognize that I can't control everything that happens to me, or to the world around me, but I can control how I respond.
Nature is the greatest teacher of all. I take my lessons from her. When she roars, I listen. We all listen. It's impossible not to. For millenia she has been showing us how utterly impotent we really are when we divide and conquer, and how strong we can be when we act to keep this beautiful, fragile but ultimately sturdy web we call earth whole and healthy. I can help in rebuilding the damaged parts of this great web by taking care of the tiny, but not insignificant, portion of this earth I live on - one moment, one word, and one deed at a time.
-G. P.