How can I make a difference?

I hear this almost every day here in March of 2025– every day that I'm connected to the human world and fully listening, that is: How can I make a difference? How can I help stop these destructive, wildly overreaching, apparently all-powerful, cruel, and violence-centered men intent on destroying almost everyone and everything we love? I hear these questions from my community members the world over now. We're all hearing this same question now. And we're all fighting the same handful of people and their cruelty-centered ways of being and ideologies now: globally. There's remarkable power, adaptability, and promise in that.

There are as many ways to make a difference as stars in the sky. I'm going to avoid sharing here what so many others are sharing now. We've already seen that boycotts against billionaire-own companies work, and that feet-in-the-streets protests work (and build solidarity and enthusiasm for more protests), and that legal challenges to illegal activities can work (sometimes), and that showing up and talking to your representatives online and on the phone and at town halls can work (at least in uniting all working people and love-centered people on the ground, and surfacing who works for billionaires not for the rest of us, which is so important right now). And we've seen countries and citizens around the globe uniting against fascist-supporting billionaires, the governments they own and are trying to own, and those who support them, too. If you're doing these things, keep going and keep sharing about them and talking about them! Try to share across old lines now– for example, if you normally share with 20- and 30-year-olds, share with 80- and 90-and 100-year-olds now too, for example. Cross-generational and cross-cultural is how we win!

You've got to like our odds: 8.2 billion humans against less than 2,700 bad-actor billionaires and their paid lackies. Their lackies' loyalty is to the money, not to the men who have it. Some billionaires who actually care about humanity have changed sides already too. I know this because I read humans (we're not naturally loyal to cruelty) and human history (wealthy assholes can cause mass chaos, suffering, and death, but they never manage to win hearts).

Make this commitment with us

We are going to change. Right here, right now. And we're going to lean on each other to hold ourselves accountable.

How you change is up to you, your family, and your community. If you're a healthy adult or elder, and you've ever been in and survived a difficult relationship, which has to be almost all of us at this point, then you already know that the only reliable way to bring meaningful and lasting change is to change yourself.

All of us here know this. I just wanted to say that out loud and to say it beside this: I've noticed that narcissists, those drawn into fascism, and crooked billionaires, dictators, and aspiring dictators actually don't know this. They believe they have to control others to bring forth change. Our ability to change ourselves as individuals, and our ability to change ourselves together as families, communities, and even as nations, is a huge advantage. Very soon, when we're working and playing even more closely and witnessing even more love-centered work and play on the global level, we're going to witness and know what it feels like to change as humanity herself. Wow, what a day that will be. Some have already seen it. And until then, for the rest of us, the work and play to get there is here on the ground, in the hands of working people and love-centered people and neighbor-loving people, like all meaningful, life-giving work/play always has been.

What we're doing here this year

As a family and as a community, we're doubling down on everything that makes us love each other, love the earth, love the land we live on, love ourselves, love humanity the world over, and even love our wildly imperfect nation that is ripe for a major love-centered transformation. We're doubling down on the love and connection we share with our friends and family, on the work and play we're most passionate about, and on the community and earth that keeps us believing in humanity's innate generosity and kindness and interconnectedness, and a better present and future. We're bumping it up a notch. We're going to offer the power of our family and community as a whole to a few more people on earth. That's actually what I'm doing here, right now, with this blog.

We're also holding each other accountable for letting go of the things we ourselves did that brought us to this place. Here that means we will no longer:

1. Blame non-billionaires for our national and global ills. We commit to no longer leaping to blame ourselves, our neighbors, and strangers on the ground with us, including all poor people and all working people our parents and grandparents may have mistrusted. It doesn't work to blame our neighbors and the rest of occasionally-misled-but-not-billionaire-level-greedy humanity for the billionaire-funded ills now befalling both humanity and the earth (humans make up just 0.01% of life on earth) today. With the wealth these men have, they could help end poverty as we know it on earth or fund everyone in the U.S to get the education and apprenticeships they need to help improve the lives of everyone else. They could fund the innovations that would help humanity turn around global climate change. They could help us connect and get to know each other better as people, which would keep all our children and all civilians much safer from violence. They've opted to do the exact opposite now, on all accounts.
2. Give up who we naturally are. We're going to stop feeling guilty for resting, taking breaks, recharging, playing, laughing, weeping, learning, unlearning, growing, changing, trying to help others, making mistakes, centering our selves or our families when we truly need help, prioritizing connection to others above working/profit/efficiency/always cleaning/always shopping/individual perfection or distraction of any sort, feeling outraged at pointless cruelty and violence, or for being full of wonder, curiosity, empathy, humor, creativity, passion for the people and the land we love, and grief for who and what we've lost. These are the actions and ways of being of love-centered communities and beings. We are connected globally to love-centered communities and beings now. All of us. We don't have to bow to fear and give up who we naturally are anymore. That's the old story, and it's where narcissists, those drawn to fascism, cruelty-centered billionaires, and dictators are stuck, trapped in generational abuse that they can't escape. We don't have to give up who we naturally are when we stand together. In fact, here we're going to double down on empathy and wonder and big-heartedness (which we call lion-heartedness). Because that's who we are. We are doubling down on who we naturally are when we're not being manipulated by billionaires, and billionaire-owned media, social media, corporations, and politicians.
3. Try to hold the weight of the world as individuals. We're done here with expecting ourselves and others to be actively involved in fixing ALL of humanity's woes every day. That is our #1 sign here that we've slipped into not spending enough time as friends, as family, and as community and that we're experiencing ourselves as isolated and alone individuals too often. There are plenty of challenges and places that we can make a difference, if we don't try to hold them all. Each challenge we pick up together holds plenty of opportunity for learning and unlearning and growth and play and work and helping each other. Each one we set down gives us the chance to be deeply grateful for the people doing the work that we can't.
4. Fall for the waterfall of fake accounts, fake pages, fake outrage invokers (and the algorithms that promote them whenever we interact with them), and paid bad actors and bots on social media and in the billionaire-owned media organizations and people spreading fear-centered lies about our neighbors. It feels like almost everyone I know has fallen for this in one way or another across the past 15 years. Nobody is above falling for it when they're alone and scared. It can be easy to manipulate a lone, scared, big-hearted individual. Loving families aren't as fooled, loving communities aren't fooled at all, and loving nations aren't fooled either. We haven't been a fully love-centered nation. We have allowed ourselves to be isolated and manipulated. We are awake and aware now to that at the moment, which sucks, and it also means that we are connected to all those in the process of changing that now. Our job now is to stop falling for all those who spread lies about our neighbors and about us and to start listening to love-centered communities of people that never fell for it because they never stopped listening to each other.

We will:

1. Focus on expanding connection and love within our communities and holding globally abusive billionaires accountable. Our neighbors aren't the problem anymore, if they ever were. We commit to spending more time, in person, with our neighbors and helping our neighbors and loving our neighbors. Our shared problem now is those who clearly believe all of life must bow to them, be their puppets or their property or slaves, be displaced, be imprisoned, be tortured, or be dead for them to feel safer in their bunkered towers. That's not poor people. Not anyone most of us know. That's abused wealthy children who were allowed to become abusive billionaires with almost no accountability for their actions all along the way. We gave up shopping at or using some billionaire-owned businesses years ago (Home Depot, Uline, Walmart, X, for example), and we've added a few more to the list this year: Tesla, Starlink, Amazon, Amazon Prime, Whole Foods. And also Target until they change the leadership that thought selling out the people on the ground who love them was a good idea. Not everybody has this option, this power, and that's ok. I love also BlueSky and would give up Facebook, Instagram, and Threads too if I could get my aunties and cousins and friends to move with me. 😄 Since that's not likely, I'm committed to spreading awareness about the massive manipulation and outrage-provoking happening on those billionaire-owned platforms.
2. Help our neighbors while simultaneously gumming up the works of a cruelty-centered authoritarian U.S. government. Here we're joining a community group and funding a few more community groups/organizations that help those hurt worst by the billionaire-funded, pro-cruelty, anti-humanity policies of the present. These policies didn't start with the current billionaire-owned U.S. president and his handlers and henchmen, but most will be ending with them as humanity sees– thanks to our now bright and shining light of mass cruelty and hatred of humanity– just how horrible they truly are. And, we're also going to fund/join a few organizations that are directly fighting cruel billionaire-funded policies on different fronts. There are so many already in this fight. Just support them. Send them money. Send them messages of love and support. Most of us don't have to reinvent the wheel. If you're in my family and community and don't know of any organizations to support, reach out to me in person or online. Happy to talk about those we support here.
3. Challenge ourselves to do less so we can be more loving, better rested, and do better at what matters most. There is a pervasive myth here in the U.S. that we aren't doing enough, and we need to do a lot more. Maybe that's true for some, but I've literally never met anyone that feels true for in person. From my perspective, a lot of people in the U.S. are actually doing too much. We're working multiple jobs, stretched far too thin, worrying all the time, and we're exhausted, which often makes us either too tired or sick or hiding within our distractions/escapes to fight billionaires or too easily manipulated by billionaires into believing that we can't or shouldn't be doing anything at all to fight them when they cause harm. Yes, I'm aware that our exhaustion is likely by evil policy design and/or the end result of billionaire-worshiping capitalism. And. My own family has had significant health challenges across the past 6 months. Some days I'm caregiving for a lot of people now. In response to that, and to what's happening in our government, I'm selling my beloved and growing herbalist business this year to free up more time for family, for friends, for writing, and for community building– all of which fill me with the energy and wonder and empathy I need to be me– and I'm picking one part of the whole to personally focus on, in person. For me that's been beginning to host writers in our home, showing up for more community-building meetings created by love-centered organizations, and writing this new weekly blog that focuses on wonders. On top of my increasing caregiving responsibilities, if I were to take on more than these activities that I deeply love and need this year, I'm positive that I'd wear myself out and emotionally drain those I love in the process. Empathic beings are powerful– if we don't protect ourselves from exhaustion and depression and anxiety, we can take everyone around us down with us. That would play right into the hands of the bad-actor billionaires and that would make things worse for us here and for the people (humanity) and land (earth) we love, not better.
4. Do what it takes to stop feeling so alone. A lot of people have tried holding the weight of the world as individuals. We have more than enough evidence now that that never works. Humans feeling chronically isolated and alone got us into the mess we all find ourselves in now. It's time to hold these challenges as communities and groups of communities and families and organizations and even as nations again. And as humanity as a whole too, which is new, that's why we feel so damn awkward doing it. We're new at it. 😄 Together, lion-hearted earthlings are unstoppable. Now is the time for lion-hearted people to come together and stay together. Have you seen the MASSIVE protests and boycotts across Europe and Canada and Central and South America apparently against the billionaires and dictators who just bought the U.S. government in an attempt to further dismantle regular Americans' big heartedness and communities? Seen the growing protests in the U.S.? What those really are is massive movements of love-centered families, communities, and beings. They are a demonstration of faith in people on the ground there, here, and everywhere. They are demonstrations of how humanity's love is spreading now, not retreating, from a cruelty-centered past and present. They are beacons of hope for the hopeless. Bright-shining lights to help us reignite and believe in our own light again. We can be great because our people– humanity as a whole– are love-centered, generous, lion-hearted, and willing to help. When you see massive protests of humanity standing against cruelty, you don't see danger like the billionaire-class does. You now see love, see devotion to each other, see courage and bravery of your fellow human beings fighting for each other. The fear-centered billionaires are selling a message about humanity that literally almost nobody in real life on the ground is buying any more. Do whatever you need to do to believe in humanity as a whole again. All that takes is to walk away from everything you're doing now that keeps you trapped in feeling isolated and alone. This isn't easy, although it begins to feel easier the moment you lean on a friend for help.

Lastly, I'll share what I said to my elder aunt living in a different state this week when she asked me how she could make a difference. I said:

"You are already doing so much. All those children you've helped raise over the years, your own and others, to be kind and loving human beings. That's quite a lot. And being a safe place for others, that's also a lot. Beyond that, some ideas are to call your representatives often and let them know how you feel or go to town hall meetings when they have them or join a local organization or group to help stand against these billionaires (if you don't know of one, a great nationwide group with local chapters is Indivisible.org). I also think being intentionally more creative helps– more art and music making or baking! Here there are boycotts to join and tons of protests we can attend. Not sure about there, though. A nationwide protest is scheduled for April 5th. You can protest at your state capitol or stand with people protesting in your town around the town hall or city hall building. It is highly energizing to stand with thousands of neighbors. I highly recommend it. Lastly, if none of that sounds like your thing, help neighbors in need somehow. There are going to be a lot more neighbors in need in the coming years if we don't stop this now. Giving food or time or money or just love is always a great idea."

Yes, I'm wending with my own family too. What can I say? My love for humanity and our planet makes me long winded, and if I could change that love I would have changed it decades ago when I was less confident in myself and others. Luckily, they love me anyway. ;-)

Everything that love-centered beings, families, communities, and nations do makes a difference. Just because a few elected officials are cruelty-centered, doesn't mean the rest of us are, or ever will be. Prioritizing what it takes to remain loving and to return to being loving when you slip up like we all do– wherever and whoever you are– always helps.

Always.

Pass it on.