Mind Petals Boston Chapter, The First Gathering
Little things make a large difference. I often think that so much has to be done for change to happen, but change happens with the little things: with a simple change in a lifestyle habit or thinking a little more about others or any other seemingly small step towards positive change. Our gathering started off with discussing a separate issue, Death, and how too many people are so paralyzed by the fear of it that they seek to latch on to anything that gives them a sense of being a part of something bigger. Leading me to mention: as human beings and living organisms, we automatically co-exist within this ‘something bigger’ just by being alive. But apparently not everyone thinks in such a way and thus seeks comfort through religion, material goods and/or social relations to give their life meaning. This is a superficial way of dealing with life and although it helps to be socially accepted, it cannot truly satisfy our deepest needs of being part of the greater scheme of things.
As the night progressed, we discussed the issue of helping people and how change happens gradually, even if we would like good things to happen almost immediately, they won’t. Along those lines we discussed the spreading out of ones efforts to create change and how helping people can possibly hinder one’s original efforts. Spreading oneself too thin will possibly diminish the desired results, and lack the necessary energy to truly implement change. Some attending friends who were pre-med majors discussed how concentrating their efforts on a few people will enhance the people’s lives and show an example for others to follow. Additionally, I mentioned “if everyone would concentrate on helping themselves first, then there would be less people in need of assistance in general.” But I feel the current idea of being a helpful and concerned individual is undermining individuals’ ability to ensure their own well-being before providing assistance to others.
This was most of what we discussed at the first gathering, along with random things about recent life events, parties, and new people we meet. Any ideas for topics of discussion are always welcome.
I shared this small story as well: A schoolteacher tells her young students to be good citizens. They are unsure what she means and ask her for clarification. So she gives the example of helping a blind women across the street as being a good citizen. Later on she asks if anyone was a good citizen and two young boys raise their hands. The first one says he helped a blind woman cross the street. The teacher says that that was very nice of him. The second boy says the same thing. The teacher gets suspicious and asks where they found this blind women. They say they were leading her from one end of the road to another and they were a little scared because a crowd of people were yelling at them to stop, and the women herself was uncooperative because she did not wish to go anywhere in the first place.
This is interesting to me because many times we are told to preform behaviors that we have no experience with and don’t consider ourselves ready for, but are still pushed to preform.
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