next breath, next step, next choice

Having just read another news story that brings tears to my eyes and heaviness to my heart, I reflect again on how crucial it is to make the world around us more compassionate and just.

There are so many people contributing to those changes. And, I also realize how challenging it can feel to keep trying when the anger, heartbreak, and even numbness of sensation creates avalanches of crushing despair.

As is put aptly in song verse -

I've seen dark before, but not like this
This is cold, this is empty, this is numb
The life I knew is over, the lights are out
Hello, darkness, I'm ready to succumb

I follow you around, I always have
But you've gone to a place I cannot find
This grief has a gravity, it pulls me down
But a tiny voice whispers in my mind
You are lost, hope is gone
But you must go on
And do the next right thing

The words of this song capture the grief of immense loss along with the determination to keep going. They hold sage advice for the heaviness of these times and for changemakers of every age...

I won't look too far ahead
It's too much for me to take
But break it down to this next breath, this next step
This next choice is one that I can make

Staying focused on the big picture is immensely helpful for staying connected to your purpose. And, often, the distance between where we are and where we're going feels like an impossible chasm to bridge.

At those moments, breaking it down to "this next breath, this next step, this next choice" allows you to respond to your needs and create a sustainable path for action.

So I'll walk through this night
Stumbling blindly toward the light
And do the next right thing

And, with the dawn, what comes then?
When it's clear that everything will never be the same again
Then I'll make the choice to hear that voice
And do the next right thing

~The Next Right Thing from Frozen II

Just in case animated songs and movies don't resonate with you, similar guidance from a philosophical and psychological perspective may serve well:

...there is no pit you cannot climb out of provided you make the right effort at the right place.
When one is in a mess like you are, one has no right any more to worry about the idiocy of one’s own psychology, but must do the next thing with diligence and devotion and earn the goodwill of others. In every littlest thing you do in this way you will find yourself. [Everyone has] to do it the hard way, and always with the next, the littlest, and the hardest things.

~Carl Jung from Selected Letters of C.G. Jung, 1909-1961(emphasis added).

No matter the world around you, the challenges you face, or the heartbreak that engulfs you, you can break it down to the "next breath, the next step, the next choice."

What is your next right thing?

You matter. You can make a difference. I'm so thankful you're here.