In my talk for the Lights for Liberty vigil, I mentioned the feelings of helplessness that can often overtake us in the face of such overwhelming evil such as the current human rights violations being perpetrated in our name at our border. It’s easy to sink into a sense of complete impotence as an individual against such a large problem, or to turn away, overwhelmed and just try to pretend it’s not happening.

And I get it, I struggle frequently to find balance between staying aware and not looking away from the atrocities in this world and living my life, being present for my family, and finding joy in the good of creation that is still all around us. Between the human rights violations and the ecological disaster that we are poised on the precipice of, I feel like I can barely breathe some days.

But this is where engaging and participating actually comes into play as the ultimate win-win situation. You see, by engaging and finding something we can do to help the situation, we not only find a way to make the world better, we make ourselves better in the process. And in doing that, we also can find the space to breathe, to be less overwhelmed, to be present in our own lives and in the lives of those in our communities. I find this advice from Rabbi Ruttenberg to be absolutely essential in continuing to find energy to move forward.

Pick something you can do, do it. Keep doing that week after week. Write your representatives, talk to your friends and call them into the movement, read books and articles and get a better education and understanding of current events, attend events, go to a protest, check on your local organizers and activists. If we all just keep doing what we can in the moment, it doesn’t really matter how “big” or how “small” our contributions are if we just keep at it. It all adds up to a big movement, with lots of various-sized parts, and it will make a difference.

The education and engagement factor is why I want to go on the RubyWoo Pilgrimage this fall. I want to be better equipped and educated so I can come back and share that with my community, and then we can go forward together and make a bigger difference collectively.

If you want to help get me on that bus, you can donate to my Facebook fundraiser here, and then follow this blog for updates as I go on that trip this fall!