Find the drips

Today I want to talk about this metaphor of the “little drips.” These little drips add up, and they deserve our attention – especially in light of our world today.

I had a conversation recently with a friend that motivated me to make this a topic for today. We talked about how, as we see some of the major issues in the world, we feel this immediate desire to try to help – to drop everything and to make change happen. While actions will be part of the solution for sure, I think this type of situation also demands self-reflection.

For some people, it’s their calling to drop everything and go. But for others of us, that feeling to drop everything is largely a desire to try to fix the discomfort that we’re feeling about seeing the problem. It’s like you moved into a new house and you pulled back one of the panels on the wall to find a giant mold issue. We feel this inner response as a need to fix it.

What I want to call your attention to is that this mold problem started as a drip. Even those of us who are not directly in those moldy situations today, we have the drips that are contributing. By being responsible for looking at ourselves is sometimes how we do our part in the most effective way.

Specifically, with the exposed racism in our country today, we need to look at the drips in our own lives. I’m talking about that basic drip of: “Where do I treat another person differently because of a way they’re different than I am?”

I really believe that this happens very regularly in our lives, that we’re doing this and it’s under our radar. These prejudices need to become above the radar, and they need to be addressed. We must noticing our responses to someone who has a different style than we do, who has a different way of life than we do, and someone who is a different race than we are.

In some ways we adopt this closed view as a sort of survival skill: “I need to make sure that I conform to those around be so that I’m accepted and taken care of to survive in the world.” We need to find any places where we believe that and we need to shift them. While it may be a result of survival fears, it is not contributing to thriving in our lives individually or collectively.

We thrive by actually bringing differences into our lives – it’s those differences that cause our minds to expand and the world to grow in community. We can accomplish so much more together than we ever could trying to stay in our own little spheres where everyone is as much like us as they can be.

It’s a waste of time to judge somebody’s outfit, judge somebody’s accent – to judge people, period. We often do this subconsciously, and it’s time to really take a look. How do you respond to someone, what are those inner feelings that arise, and what are they based on?

One of my favorite things about working on the International Space Station Program was getting to work with other cultures, and other countries’ space programs. They always did things a little bit differently, but that spirit of cooperation lead to actually listening to that different point of view and the reasoning behind it. It allowed me to appreciate those differences so much more than I did going into that role.

So my request of you today is to be responsible for finding the places where those little drips are in yourself, in your own consciousness, and in your own interactions with others. In what ways are you treating someone else’s difference as a reason to discount them, or avoid them? I guarantee you that you’ll find something. Look for them in how you view your coworkers, your family members, the people who provide you services – they’re there. Those are the places where those drips are adding up and that we can do our part. We control our own consciousness, so we need to find out what’s there and change it if it’s not in alignment with the world we want to live in.

I hope that helps you take action toward a better world. Please share it with others who you think might also appreciate that message and are interested in contributing to this part of the solution.