I'm a privileged mammal. I have an incredible family, high-fiveable friends, clothes to wear, food to eat, a job I like, the ability to make stuff, I can read, I can write, I can cook, I have two cats that I can also feed. I can spend time dancing, doing yoga and pumping iron. I live in a house and have a garden filled with food I cook with. In fact, I'm so privileged that I'm able to sit here and type these very words onto the interweb.
If I were living as a woman in Yemen, on the streets of Portland, in Côte d’Ivoire, or in The Congo I wouldn't have the privledge of doing most of the things mentioned above. Nope. I'd more than likely be fighting each and every day to survive.
Things to do with this privilege:
Sponsor a woman on Women for Women International
Make things that say something, that teach something, that somehow bring mindfulness and peaceful action into the world.
Talk to the neighbors.
Eat and talk with strangers.
See what it's like to sleep on the street in unwashed clothes - without a blanket.
Collect "art and things" from friends who make "art and things" and donate the "art and things" to people who don't have access to "art and things."
Bring someone who has never been on a vacation on a vacation.
Give overworked people in the community a much-needed break by learning their skill and working a day for them - for free.
Teach myself and my 2.5 year old to be mindful and empathetic towards all living things.
Spend less, consume less, have less + give more.
Be one with nature and not one to exploit its many offerings.
Fall in Portland - Felicity Fenton - 2014