’You’re not rescuing anyone being the size of a gerbil’

White Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland

Wise, wise words from the white rabbit there – sometimes we feel so small, and think so small of ourselves the things we desperately want to do, need to do feel so far out of our reach. And yet we try anyway…

We tell ourselves that if we were better – whatever that means – it wouldn’t be so hard. Aside from feeling so unseen, unsought and uncertain, we feel so overwhelmed and tired. We feel so ‘less than’, less than whom, I don’t know… but so begins the roller coaster of I should have, I could have, I would have.

Sometimes, all we need is permission from ourselves to just sit and be. To sit and rest, to be loved and feel loved, to heal. Sometimes, the world barrages us and beats us down, and it is all we can do to keep standing.

I have just come out of three days just being and sitting and doing many of my favorite things. I refused to feel the pressure and the burden of what I should be doing. Instead I had times with people who made me laugh, I watched a lot of movies, had an offline day, I caught up on blogs that made me smile and blogs that made me cry. I started a list of things I/we wanted to do/achieve next year… from the crazy – make ELP stay up all night and watch movies, to the serious – finish and pass all my uni subjects.

I feel positive, I feel restored and I feel hopeful. I think it is the hope that makes us grow and stand tall. I think with hope, we feel that what feels so hard and impossible right now may just be possibly possible. Hope is the source of so much magic for anyone’s soul… and sometimes the act of simply being connected brings about the birth of this hope. The knowledge you are not alone, that this is not right, that this will end, that this is not forever – the power of twitter, email, facebook, comments, texts, emails and a hug can never be underestimated.  So don’t underestimate it, or take it for granted… the five seconds you take may lift someone up more than you may know. We are all standing on the shoulders of someone who has helped to lift us up and grow taller than a gerbil.

It’s Christmas, it’s not always a great time for everyone, and even the pressure of feeling the Christmas spirit when you just don’t can be diminishing in itself. But, let’s keep the spirit of Christmas alive in our actions, and our pieces of kindness. The cost to us is nothing, but the gift is immeasurable.

This post is dedicated to the billing lady at Telstra, who after two hours on the phone and being the third person I was dumped on, went well out of her way to fix out internets on the spot. It certainly was not in her department, or within her job description, and no matter how overtired, hot eared and snappy i got, she was patient, cheerful and went on her way to reach out and do what she could to help get the issue resolved after everyone had wiped their hands of it. The world needs more people who see a need, or a problem and go out of their way to do what is in their reach to do. Above and Beyond.