It began with an ending. After almost six years working at Canada’s largest homeless shelter (an accolade no one should strive for) I have walked away.
When I arrived in the spring of 2006 I was looking for a home — a place to belong, a place to feel part of something larger than myself alone in the world — and I found it. There amidst those who care for and those who were experiencing homelessness, I found my home.
I wasn’t a frontline worker. Wasn’t in charge of anything directly related to client services. I was the Director, Public Relations and Volunteer Services — a job I loved, a job I held with great joy and a job I gave my heart to.
It was worth it.
Almost six years later, for me working at the shelter made me a better human being. It taught me the true meaning of compassion, of giving, of being part of this condition called human — a condition we all share, no matter our circumstances, the depth of our pockets or our pain or joy.
Everyday going to work I knew I was making a difference. I knew I was living on purpose.
And then, a series of events gave me cause to pause and consider — what’s next? Is this still where I fit in? And in asking the question it became clear — I was looking for more, for what was out there beyond the doors of the shelter. It was time to leave.
And therein lay my conundrum. How would I still make a difference everyday when I no longer worked in a place that delivered up that opportunity everyday?
And thus the idea arose that to make a difference I had to get conscious, get focused on the need to ‘do it’ everyday.
And that’s where this blog comes in.
Today is the first day of the new year, 2012. Today is the first of 365 days where I shall be living consciously in the essence of making a difference everyday — not just in my life — but in the world experiencing joyfully what happens when I ‘give’ without expectation of receiving.
This difference is outward focused. It’s about making the world around me a better place, being the change I want to see in the world — as Ghandi exhorts.
Today, the first day of the New Year, is my first post.
Today, I am choosing to be committed to making a difference every day.
It is just past midnight ` not much time to ‘make a difference, but in the process of getting here to Gabriola Island where C.C and I are celebrating the new year, i was given anopportunity to express my difference. Though online, BC Feries showed a 2pm ferry, when we got to the terminal, the next ferry was at 3pm. I smiled and thanked him for our tickets. And while C.C. sat in the terminal and read, I wandered Horseshoe Bay, bought us each a tea and bought the coffee for the woman in front of me — or at least the $2.10 she was short. And then, when we raced off the ferry in Nanaimo to catch the connection to Gabriola — I smiled at the woman at the ferry terminal when she told me we had missed the ferry by one minute. I didn’t get upset. didn’t whine, I smiled and bought two tickets for the next one, an hour and 10 minutes later.
And I felt better for my good humour. Better for not being snarky — wasn’t anyone’s fault. It just was.
That is my difference for today. To accept what is and let it be.
Namaste.
Happy New Year!
Dare Boldly 