You cannot do everything,

so do what you can. 

Food security, animal agriculture, gender equality, climate change, single-use plastics, chemical pollution, resource depletion. There’s so much to be concerned about if we want to be a responsible member of society! And the list keeps growing in our over-populated, consumer-oriented, technology-driven world. Because everyone apparently wants more, especially those who have the most. It’s overwhelming.

“How much can I do?” we ask ourselves.

We want to throw up our hands and give up even trying.

Resist that urge. It would be great to do everything perfectly (or even imperfectly). But we can’t. So, instead, we need to figure out what we can do. Focus on a social concern, study it, and get to work. Let others choose and work on their own concerns. If we’re not rebounding erratically from one issue to another, we’ll all focus our energy and end up accomplishing a lot more.

And then be able to take on the next one.

When disagreeable thoughts of others arise . . . (Click video for image)

Affinities from past lives 

are not bound by form or appearance. 

How many times have you met someone and instantly liked him? Or someone else you immediately disliked. Both people had smiled at you, but your response to each was very different. What’s going on here? You just ran into an old karmic affinity in the first instance and an enmity in the second.

Your store consciousness recognized theirs and, in a flash, old feelings about them arose within you. But this does not apply only to humans. Consider the cat who always seeks our company and whom we feel a deep affection for; the dog that growls only at us; the squirrel who eats contentedly from our hand. Consider also two distinct animals, normally hunter and prey, romping together like best friends.

We are reacting from karmic relationships, good and bad ones, just as the animals are. Developed over past lifetimes, these relationships are not bound by form or even the current path of existence.

Yet another reason to respect all beings.