(How) Can I be different?

Following our passion, making a stand for something, or bringing a difference means that we have to be different.

I was saddened a while ago, when Jack Monroe (@bootstrapcook) gave up Twitter.  Despite a massive and supportive following, continual abuse and trolling led her to leave the platform to ensure her mental health.

It's a common story.

Whether we aim to make small personal changes or promote change on a grand scale, we always face pressure to fit in, make compromises and collude with the circumstances that we seek to shift. 

As I look out across a world approaching environmental collapse, increasing social fragmentation and deep injustice, I wonder what would be the most intelligent thing that I could do. And in that headspace, I calculate, bargain, do deals and take the easy option.

Meanwhile, my heart is quietly making wishes: "Please, will everyone.... just wake up to what is happening...please..."

Even more gently, I feel sick in my stomach.  There I can locate despair, confusion and sorrow for the state of the planet and our troubled social structures. 

We can train ourselves to be to be smart, cocky, intellectual; there is safety and strength in that. We can learn to tolerate conflict, on social media or elsewhere.

But connecting to our fragile, intuitive, gut feel helps us to define a resilient vision for who we choose to be and brings resourcefulness to how we offer our difference to the world.

Notes:

Take a look at "Big Magic: creative living beyond fear" by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Or "Hope in the Dark" by Rebecca Solnit.

Thanks to Amanda at Originate.co.uk for a catalytic conversation.

Photo from the Bold Explorations.

Find Jack Monroe at Cookingonabootstrap.com