In This Article
- Why humanity's technology may have advanced faster than our emotional and spiritual development
- How the wisdom we already possess can become something we actually live
- Why small acts of love, compassion, and forgiveness matter more than we may realize
- How our everyday choices contribute to the kind of world we collectively create
- Why changing the world doesn't require giant leaps, but the next loving step
- How baby steps taken by millions of people can help create a more loving world
If we were able to remember how we felt as a child learning to crawl, we probably would remember looking on with amazement at the "giants" we saw around us walking and running from place to place, while we were just learning to crawl. We may have wondered how they did it, and perhaps even wondered if we would ever be able to do the same.
We forget that everything we now do easily was once difficult. First we crawled, then perhaps pulled ourselves up by holding on to furniture, then took one shaky step, then another. We fell down. We got back up. And eventually we walked without even thinking about it.
This memory might help us when we are learning some human task -- whether it is a technical skill, a new way of doing something, or a behavioral and spiritual skill such as unconditional love, patience, understanding, acceptance, forgiveness, compassion, etc.
If we read about spiritual teachers, mystics, sages, or simply people who seem to embody extraordinary love and compassion, we might feel just like that baby looking up at the adults walking around the room. We may be amazed at what these spiritual "giants" have accomplished and wonder how we could possibly become like them.
Yet they too had to take steps along the way. And that is something important to remember. Baby steps eventually lead to giant steps.
When Will We Ever Learn?
When I look at the state of our whole planet, I sometimes wonder, in the words of a familiar folk song, "when will we ever learn?"
In some ways, humanity has grown enormously. Our technology has taken giant steps. We can communicate instantly with someone on the other side of the planet. We can travel into space, perform extraordinary medical procedures, and have access to more information than any previous generation could have imagined.
Yet emotionally and spiritually, humanity sometimes seems as if it is still learning to walk.
We are still learning respect for our environment, whether that environment consists of plants, animals, people, the oceans, the atmosphere, or the Earth itself. We struggle with respecting our own selves, let alone other people who may look different from us, believe differently from us, vote differently from us, worship differently from us, or live on the other side of the planet or the tracks.
We have made gigantic "faux pas" -- false steps -- in our dealings with each other, whether one on one, gender to gender, tribe to tribe, race to race, religion to religion, or country to country.
And perhaps that is part of our learning process. A child learning to walk does not fall down once and then decide that walking is impossible. The child gets up and tries again. Perhaps humanity needs to do the same.
Our Technology Grew Up Before We Did
One of the challenges we now face is that our technological abilities seem to have developed faster than our ability to use them wisely. We have developed enormous power without necessarily developing the wisdom, compassion, and understanding required to use that power for the good of all.
That makes our spiritual and emotional development more important than ever.
Whether we follow a particular religion, consider ourselves spiritual but not religious, or follow no spiritual tradition at all, certain basic principles remain available to all of us: compassion, respect, forgiveness, kindness, acceptance, and recognition of our shared humanity.
These are not complicated concepts. We already know them. Our challenge is living them.
Humanity has accumulated thousands of years of teachings about love, compassion, forgiveness, and peace. Perhaps our next evolutionary step is not acquiring more teachings, but learning to live the ones we already have.
Living What We Say We Believe
The teachings of Jesus were not just "for show". They were meant to be lived -- loving thy neighbor as thyself, casting the first stone only if we are innocent, forgiving 7 times 70, being a "good Samaritan" and helping even those whom we have considered enemies.
Jesus the Christ certainly never meant, or desired, to be admired. On the contrary, he wanted us to follow in his footsteps. He told his disciples that they too "could do these things".
The same principle can be found in the lives and teachings of many of the world's great spiritual teachers. Their teachings were not meant simply to be quoted, studied, displayed on walls and bumper stickes, or admired from a distance.
They were maps.
But having a map and walking the road are two very different things. It is easy to say we believe in love. It can be much harder to respond lovingly when someone acts hurtfully.
It is easy to believe in forgiveness. Yet, it is harder when we are the one who needs to forgive.
It is easy to speak of peace. And as we've all surely experienced, it is harder to choose peace when we are angry.
And that is where the baby steps come in.
Our Responsibility as Humans
We all have a responsibility to the world, especially those of us who have been abundantly blessed with resources, education, freedom, technology, and opportunities unavailable to so many others.
Our responsibility is not necessarily to "lead" everyone else. Perhaps that idea itself belongs to an earlier way of thinking. Our responsibility is to participate. To contribute. To recognize that we are part of something much larger than ourselves.
We need to help free others not just from the shackles of physical poverty or oppressive political systems, but also from the shackles of hatred and fear. And we begin by refusing to let hatred and fear control our own choices.
We who are abundantly blessed need to share our blessings with others less fortunate -- whether they reside in our own backyard, on the "other side of the tracks", or across the other side of the planet. It is time for us to recognize that our backyard extends all around the planet and back.
The air we breathe does not recognize national borders. Neither do the oceans, the climate, the winds, migrating animals, economic systems, or increasingly, our communications with one another.
Our actions travel farther than they once did. So do our words. So do our choices.
We are interconnected whether we recognize it or not.
"Whatever you do to one of these, you do to me" applies to every single inhabitant on the planet -- no matter their race, gender, religion, social class, income level, nationality, political beliefs, etc.
Healing Wounds Rather Than Creating Them
Jesus and other enlightened teachers have always spoken of healing wounds -- not creating them.
We need to keep our focus on what we create -- a world filled with more joy, love, compassion, abundance, and peace, or one filled with fear and hatred?
And the only way to get to a reality of compassion and peace is to practice what spiritual teachings have been telling us for thousands of years: love thy neighbor, forgive, have compassion, and lend a helping hand.
Perhaps we sometimes make the mistake of thinking these are gigantic tasks. They don't have to be.
Forgiving someone can be a baby step.
Listening rather than immediately responding can be a baby step.
Stopping ourselves before saying something hurtful can be a baby step.
Choosing not to pass along something hateful or divisive can be a baby step.
Helping someone we normally would not notice can be a baby step.
Admitting that we were wrong can sometimes be a very big baby step.
Each choice may seem insignificant by itself. Yet remember the child learning to walk. One step does not take the child very far.
But thousands of steps eventually allow that child to walk, run, dance, climb mountains, and travel around the world.
Perhaps the same is true of humanity.
Small Choices Create A New Reality
Sometimes we may look at the problems in the world and feel overwhelmed. What can one person possibly do?
Yet every culture, every society, every family, every community is ultimately created through the accumulated choices of individuals.
One compassionate choice does not transform humanity. But millions of compassionate choices can transform a culture.
One act of forgiveness may not bring peace to the world, but it can bring peace to one relationship, and perhaps to one family or neighborhood.
One act of kindness may not eliminate suffering, but it can eliminate suffering for one person at one particular moment.
And perhaps that is where transformation begins.
We often imagine that changing the world requires some enormous heroic act. Yet much of the world is created quietly through everyday choices -- what we say, what we refuse to say, what we support, what we reject, what we forgive, what we encourage, and how we treat the person standing in front of us.
We must put these teachings into practice at home, in our hearts, in our thoughts, in our actions, in our politics, in our visions, and in our everyday life.
We need to make sure our steps are leading us towards healing -- not destruction; towards love -- not hatred; towards joy -- not sorrow.
Baby Steps To A More Loving World
Let us keep taking baby steps to get to where we want to be -- living a more loving reality of life on Earth. We start by focusing on the immediate present -- the next step that presents itself to us today.
We do not have to heal the whole planet today. We do not have to become enlightened today. We do not have to forgive everyone today, solve every problem today, or know exactly where the road ahead will take us.
We simply need to recognize the next loving step. And then take it.
Perhaps tomorrow we take another. And another.
A child learning to walk does not stand up one morning and announce that today it will learn to run a marathon. It simply reaches for something to hold on to, pulls itself upright, and tries. Sometimes it falls. Sometimes we will too. The important thing is that we get back up and choose again.
We already have thousands of years of wisdom showing us the direction. The Great Teachers have given us the map. Our own heart can help us recognize the next step.
The future is not something that simply happens to us. It is something we participate in creating through the choices we make every day.
And perhaps creating "heaven on Earth" does not begin with some gigantic transformation after all. Perhaps it begins exactly as we began our own journey through life. With one small, uncertain, courageous baby step.
And then another.
One step at a time.
Recommended Book:
Emissary of Love: The Psychic Children Speak to the World
(reprinted with new title: Psychic Children Speak to the World: How Love Creates Miracles)
by James Twyman.
In 2000, while giving a talk in a private home, Twyman encountered an extraordinary ten-year-old boy named Marco. He touched Twyman's finger, and suddenly Twyman could bend spoons with the power of his mind, read thoughts, and transmit thoughts to others. Marco said that there were other special children like him--in a monastery in the mountains of Bulgaria---which led Twyman to southern Europe and further adventures. In the process, he learned that the children had a message for all the world and that he was to be the one to deliver that message. The message? Love creates miracles.
Click here for more info and/or to order this book. (new edition, new title, new cover). Also available as a Kindle edition.
About The Author
Marie T. Russell is the founder of InnerSelf Magazine (founded 1985). She also produced and hosted a weekly South Florida radio broadcast, Inner Power, from 1992-1995 which focused on themes such as self-esteem, personal empowerment, and well-being. Her articles focus on transformation and reconnecting with our own inner source of joy and creativity.
Creative Commons 3.0: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License. Attribute the author: Marie T. Russell, InnerSelf.com. Link back to the article: This article originally appeared on InnerSelf.com
Article Recap
Creating a more loving world begins with the choices we make every day. Humanity may have taken giant technological steps while still learning the basics of compassion, forgiveness, respect, and love. Yet small steps can accumulate into profound change. By choosing the next loving step in our relationships, communities, and interactions with the world around us, each of us participates in creating a better future -- one baby step at a time.
#MoreLovingWorld #BabySteps #ChooseLove #Compassion
#Forgiveness #Kindness #SpiritualGrowth #PersonalTransformation
#PositiveChange #InnerSelf
