I find it pretty frustrating that there is much in this world I’d like to change but I don’t have the power to do so. Wouldn’t you like a planetary system which better provided all living beings, which was fairer, kinder, more compassionate and more caring? I would.
My whole working life I worked with patient after patient, to try and relieve individual suffering, to try to play a part in improving the lives of the people who I cared for. But I couldn’t do anything about poverty, about poor housing, precarious unsatisfying jobs, about the climate and inequality.
But here’s something I’ve realised. When you live a certain way, it catches on. In fact, whichever way you live, it catches on. Kindness breeds kindness, just as anger stokes anger and violence causes more violence.
Every single one of us lives embedded in vast networks of connection. We can’t help influencing others and changing the world. It’s what we do.
The thing is, mostly we do all this unconsciously, on autopilot, as “zombies”. But what if we decided to wake up, become more aware, to imagine, act and share more consciously?
As Gandhi said
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.”
Maybe, then, we can spread more of what we want to spread.
Back in 1966, Dionne Warwick sang…..
Heroes Not Zombies 
Love that song…..still a perfect mantra for us all!