“Be the change you wish to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi
I’m sure you recognize that quote, it’s been used an infinite amount of times for an infinite number of different campaigns. Well, I like it a lot because while choosing a place to spend three months of volunteer work, there’s a question between the lines that asks you “What aspect of the world would you like to spend time towards changing?”. Yeah, well, geez that’s a lot of pressure. There’s so many problems in the world where on earth, literally, am I supposed to begin?
Oh yeah… I’m supposed to begin with me.
Alright, so, let me talk to you about something that we all already know – a majority of the American population is unhappy. So much so that you can walk into your therapist’s office, sit down, say “I’m depressed”, and he’ll say “me too”. The cause? Another thing we already know – material dependency, lack of gratitude, unhealthy habits, social standards, and I’m sure can think of a few more if you try on your own. It’s the hot topic at every dinner party these days. Everybody is now beginning to realize that the American Dream is a faulty, unreachable, and down-right taunting lie.
But even though we know that we know this, apparently we aren’t so convinced because we continue to run the hamster wheel chasing success until our legs fall off and we are six feet under with a tombstone that reads “died a sad and almost successful person”. Over and over again we find ourselves trying to outdo the neighbor and trying to be the best in the class and all the other examples of our tendency to climb higher on the social ladder. We finally reach the top step and say “hm, you know what? I’m not actually happy with this, I think I’ll take another step higher”. We climb and climb until we realize that we’ve never actually taken a step. We are still at the bottom of life, trying to figure out why we are unhappy. And right next to us is our neighbor, scratching his head.
Don’t we all want to be happy? Say what you will but I’ve never met anyone who’s told me their goal in life is to die miserably depressed, and that’s certainly not mine. And isn’t that why we watch comedies? Isn’t that why we have therapy and medication? Isn’t that why we have religions? We all just want to be happy, but even with all these things, we’re still missing something. Let’s take a look at our education. Do you remember that class where they taught you the valuable lesson of how to manifest happiness into your life? You don’t? Oh yeah, me neither because it doesn’t exist. As a culture, we are trying to mix every color in the rainbow to create happiness and all we get is a mucky dark brown. We’ve never learned how to find happiness, so we watch a funny movie, or we talk to a therapist, or we join a church. We reach out out and out, when instead we should be reaching in. Why reach in? Well, that’s where you will find your happiness.
Ugh, but that’s hard! Yeah I know it’s hard. We’ve never learned how to reach in and get to know ourselves and were finding out that this stepping-stone life that society has planned for us leads right to a dead end. But as they say in a quote used just as many times as Gandhi’s; “Practice makes perfect”. We can’t expect to just wake up one day, throw out all of our material wealth inner greed and find happiness beneath the pile, we have to practice! How do we practice? Well, that’s up to you! It won’t be the same as mine.
With all this in mind and some motivation from the words of Gandhi, I proposed the question “Where can I work on me?”. Where in the world can I go to learn how to create the happy lifestyle I want to live and share with others? Well the very first placement I was offered was the beautiful Ohana Amani. After doing a little bit of an investigation, I said alright, hands down, this is the place for me. I don’t care where in the world it is, it’s exactly right for me.
And it is!
Ohana Amani is a non-profit organization dedicated to nourishing, respecting, and enriching life through education, empowerment, and example in the southern highlands of Tanzania. That is, at least, how they summarize it. In other words, they are manifesting happiness and extending it out to the world. The way Curry and her partner Luca practice their happiness align similarly with how I wish to practice mine. In the month that has gone by, I have been exploring the world of permaculture, practicing both yoga and meditation, cooking and feeding my body with farm fresh foods, cultivating creative energy, practicing conscious living, and expressing extreme gratitude for the joy and happiness I feel in my life. Along with this, I was lucky enough to spend two weeks volunteering at Sunrise Children’s Home in Uhekule village where I was able to put all my practice to work!
So, in summary, for my focus volunteer placement, I am becoming the change I want to see in the world; happiness. Maybe if we all give true happiness a try, there won’t be any problems in the world left to fix! But I can’t change the whole world, I can only change me. But hey, Ghandi thinks that’s a good place to start, so… 🙂