My Trip to Honduras
Part 5 - What Now?
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Over the last 4 articles, I've shared some of my thoughts about my trip to Honduras. I know those thoughts are incomplete. I've left stuff out maybe I should have included; more thoughts and reflections will undoubtedly hit me in the days and weeks ahead.
But as soon as possible after my trip, I wanted to capture my reflections. Definitely as a way of remembering, but more importantly, to help inform the life paths I choose going forward. Because I brought a truth back from Honduras. To a large degree a truth I've always known it - but today it's written on my heart. It has a relentless voice. And it's saying: You have far more paths to choose from in life than most of the world. Before I left, people warned me - you'll come back feeling guilty. While I was there, a wise woman warned me against coming home feeling pity. |
Well, I've wrestled with enough guilt in my life to have been beaten down by the uselessness of that emotion. And being back home, I know the least beneficial resource I have to offer the people of Honduras is my pity.
But what do I have to offer? What can I do now?
I keep going back to a conversation we had as a team after dinner one night in Honduras. We talked about the idea of a changed mindset.
We all have a mindset. It guides the decisions we make in life. I believe at the heart of my own mindset, - quite subconsciously up until now - is the repetitively whispered question: is this next choice motivated by a desire to make your life better - or someone else's?
I believe our culture tries to seduce us with the possibilities of how much better our lives can be. It wagers on the belief we're most motivated to make our lives better.
- Our bookstores are full of self-helps and self-actualizations and self-esteem builders.
- Advertisers break it to us not so gently every day where we are coming up short in life, but then in turn heroically offer to sell us a solution.
- Social media is a me me me highlight reel.
- Bank accounts are often the only human performance metrix that really matters.
- Life is all about keeping up with and not lifting up the Joneses.
Sure, this is a broad generalization. But take a look around. Are the interactions you're having in your life ecouraging you to be your best self or helping someone else become theirs?
But here is the question that begins my what now journey. Here is the questions I'm committed to asking myself more, and encouraging others to ask themselves more. What if it isn't an either or proposition?
But what do I have to offer? What can I do now?
I keep going back to a conversation we had as a team after dinner one night in Honduras. We talked about the idea of a changed mindset.
We all have a mindset. It guides the decisions we make in life. I believe at the heart of my own mindset, - quite subconsciously up until now - is the repetitively whispered question: is this next choice motivated by a desire to make your life better - or someone else's?
I believe our culture tries to seduce us with the possibilities of how much better our lives can be. It wagers on the belief we're most motivated to make our lives better.
- Our bookstores are full of self-helps and self-actualizations and self-esteem builders.
- Advertisers break it to us not so gently every day where we are coming up short in life, but then in turn heroically offer to sell us a solution.
- Social media is a me me me highlight reel.
- Bank accounts are often the only human performance metrix that really matters.
- Life is all about keeping up with and not lifting up the Joneses.
Sure, this is a broad generalization. But take a look around. Are the interactions you're having in your life ecouraging you to be your best self or helping someone else become theirs?
But here is the question that begins my what now journey. Here is the questions I'm committed to asking myself more, and encouraging others to ask themselves more. What if it isn't an either or proposition?
What if we simply have it backwards? What if the cultural invitation to pursue our best selves is an endless chase, too cruel to even let us know it's a dead end? And what if that chase is a self-destructive distraction from the reality that helping someone else become their best self IS the path to becoming our best self. What if getting committed to the esteem of others is the purest path to boosting our own self-esteem?
I come home committed to making that subconscious whisper in my life - is this to make your life better or someone else's life better - a question that begins to shout to my life and not one that shamefully hides inside it.
So what does that look like?
It looks like taking the time to get the shoes I no longer want or need in the hands of Soles4Souls. I've now seen how Soles4Souls is wearing out poverty with them. I've seen how they can make someone else's life better, and fill our landfills much slower. If you want to know how to get your shoes and to Soles4Souls, go here.
It means pushing forward with a plan to partner with Soles4Souls and the World Compass Foundation to host a 5K in Honduras next spring. If you're interested in being on the team that goes to Honduras to run the race and distribute shoes, you can shoot me a message at [email protected].
If you can't go to Honduras, which I get, stay tuned to more information coming soon about how you can register to run or walk the race virtually and support Soles4Souls and the World Compass Foundation.
It means looking at more people in my country through the lens of how can I help you instead of how can you help me.
It means doing everything I can to help people see the answer to turning our country's epidemic of pain inside out is turning our mindset inside out - literally.
Thank you
To everyone who finacially supported this journey. To Soles4Souls for being the perfect organization to travel and learn with. To Raul Carraso, my Honduran brother who opened my heart to his country and his people. To everyone who joined this journey by collecting and donating shoes. To the amazing team I got to travel with, I didn't know one of you when I showed up in Honduras. By the time I left, I loved you all and have gratitude for how you shaped my life. And to everyone who prayed for me along the way. Thank you.
To everyone who finacially supported this journey. To Soles4Souls for being the perfect organization to travel and learn with. To Raul Carraso, my Honduran brother who opened my heart to his country and his people. To everyone who joined this journey by collecting and donating shoes. To the amazing team I got to travel with, I didn't know one of you when I showed up in Honduras. By the time I left, I loved you all and have gratitude for how you shaped my life. And to everyone who prayed for me along the way. Thank you.
Last time Part I - We Are More the Same than We Are Different
Last time Part II - What Motivates You?
Last time Part III - Serving the Poor
Last time Part IV - Do We All Have the Same Opportunities to Dream?
