Simple Ways to Change the World

Dear world changer,

Yes, you – the overworked mama who is stretched to the max. I know, I know, you could use more hours in the day and keeping your family afloat is where it’s at for you right now.

You spend your days feeding, cleaning, tidying, washing, teaching, loving, existing. Maybe you work too so you are juggling home life around a demanding work schedule. I get it; there just isn’t space for anything else. But what if I told you it is possible to make big differences with very little effort at all?

I recently purchased a gift for a friend from Zjoosh. At the checkout I was asked if I would add $2 onto my purchase to provide breakfast and lunch for a school child in Kenya for a week. Food for a week for $2? Was she serious? Why wouldn’t I? That $2 wouldn’t even buy me a cup of coffee (which I could easily make for myself at home anyway).

I looked at the pictures of those children displayed at the checkout and I had a profound moment of realisation: I used to care deeply about issues of social justice. I just haven’t had the capacity for that sort of empathy in recent years. I know that sounds ridiculous but, in my defence, I have spent the last five years either pregnant (read sick), nursing, sleep-deprived, depressed, moving countries or generally operating out of my dregs. Everyday life has consumed me.

However, as I emerge from the fog of parenting three children under four, I am rediscovering parts of myself I have subconsciously suppressed in order to function and survive each day. And the fire in my heart, that burns for the poor, is shouting at me to be reignited.

This got me thinking about the collective impact – of a caring community of mothers -who pursue a goal of a fairer and better world. We want it for our own kids, right? Why not dream it for the children of mothers who need a bit of a leg-up?

This doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult. I spent a couple of years blogging about really simple ways we can all make a difference, by being mindful of issues and making small changes. If you will join me, I commit to doing the leg-work of drumming up ways or looking for existing opportunities to make positive changes in our wider world.

In an international society of excess there are too many who have little or nothing at all. The thought of a child dying needlessly always has – and always will – filled me with outrage. This is a tragedy. A cruel, everyday atrocity that can be remedied if we rally together for the good of all humankind. I know it sounds idealist but what does this life even mean if we don’t hope for better?

Mamas, let’s model to our own children how to create a better world, one where no child dies from a curable disease or starves needlessly; one where we don’t live merely for ourselves but for the greater good of all people, animals and our environment.

It can be done; one small change at a time.

Love,
Mama world changer, Rox