Do you have to do something huge to make the world better? No. And the pressure to do something grand is exactly what stops most people doing anything at all.
Do you have to do something huge to make the world better? No. And the pressure to do something grand is exactly what stops most people doing anything at all.
Our cat Mitzi brought a mouse in and my partner had to deal with it alone, because I was in bed and paralysed. Thank you Mitzi. Please stop. Then there is the monk sitting there deciding to be calm about a fly, which is not really calm at all. Staying calm is admirable. Doing one kind thing is better, and every single kind act counts.
One thing to try: Do one small kind thing today and tell nobody about it.
In this episode
(0:00) What it actually takes to change the world
(1:50) Mitzi, the mouse, and being the one stuck in bed
(3:11) Thank you Mitzi, now please stop
(4:35) The monk who decided to be calm about the fly
(6:09) Remaining calm is admirable, but it is not the whole job
(7:15) Every single kind act makes the world better
With gratitude to
Mo, the first patron of this podcast.
Support the podcast and join the Weekly Calm: stevenwebb.uk
Thank you for listening.
Steven
The question this answers
Do you have to do something huge to make the world better?
No. And the pressure to do something grand is exactly what stops most people doing anything at all.
The heart of it
Every kind act counts, and there is no minimum size.
Staying calm about a problem is admirable. Solving it is better.
Feeling useless is what turns caring into doing nothing.
At two in the morning our cat Mitzi was crashing about downstairs. I put the light on and she froze. Half an hour later, same again. Then I saw something small and black go across the floor.
She had brought a mouse in.
I called my carer Beth down, and I should be clear that when I say we found it, I mean she did all of it while I lay there telling her where I thought it had gone. We got it into a plastic tub and she took it upstairs.
Twenty minutes later she came back and said she thought the mouse would be all right.
She had given it water with a bit of sugar in for the shock, and it had drunk from the spoon three times. Then she had walked it to the end of the road and stood there watching until it went under a bush.
That improved the universe. Thank you Mitzi. Please stop.
Another of my carers, Kate, picked a bee up off the path while we were out and put it on a leaf in the sun so its wings could warm up. A few minutes later it went.
And there is a story Jack Kornfield tells about sitting with a fly in his tea, working hard at being serene about it. It is only a fly. It is only tea. I shall not be disturbed.
His teacher came over, asked what was going on, put a finger in the cup, lifted the fly out and left the room. He came back a while later noticeably cheerful, because he had dried the fly off and it had flown away.
Kornfield had achieved calm. The teacher had achieved a live fly and an undisturbed cup of tea.
One small thing to try
Do one small kind thing today and stop measuring it.
Say hello. Read to a child. Give twenty minutes to somebody who is short of company. Move the bee.
None of it looks like changing the world and all of it is.
Questions people ask
Is accepting things not the point of all this?
Accepting the present moment means seeing it clearly. It does not mean approving of it. Peace and doing something about a thing are not opposites, and a great deal of spiritual language gets that backwards.
What if my contribution feels too small to matter?
Then you are measuring against the wrong thing. The mouse did not need a campaign. It needed sugar water and somebody willing to walk to the end of the road.
Why does feeling useless matter so much?
Because it is what stops people who genuinely care from ever acting. Deciding nothing you do counts is far more damaging than not caring in the first place.
Read along
The transcript
It follows the audio. Press any line to jump there.
compassion · empathy · purpose
Read the transcript
Hey, welcome to Stillness in the Storms podcast. I'm Steven Webb, your host, and I help you to have some
inner peace when you need it most and you have it least. On today's podcast, we're talking about what's important
in life and how we can make a difference. Very often with everything that's going on in the world, with
politics and with natural disasters and things like that, we really get into this rut of what can I do?
There's nothing I can do. There's no point. So we end up feeling like we're useless. Feeling like, what's the
point? So we go into this place of nihilism that just makes us feel that we're not capable of making
a change in the world, not capable of doing anything. And when you talk about people that when they're nearly
at the end of their lives and you ask them what's important to them, and they ask questions like, did
I love well? Was I kind? How will I be remembered? Did I leave the planet in a better way
than it was before?
And it's those kind of questions that I want to answer on today's podcast. The big thing with this is
it doesn't have to be grand gestures. I was, I woke up in the night the other night with the
cat jumping around making lots of noise and it was about two o'clock in the morning and I turned the
light on and the cat would freeze. And I would go back to try to go back to sleep, turn
the light off. And then about a half an hour later, I would hear the cat jumping around again. I
would turn the light on and the cat would like sit down, do nothing. And then I seen a little
something black just run across the floor. And I clicked. The cat had brought in a mouse. Now I don't
know whether she was trying to do something to it or play with it or I I don't know. So
I called my carer down, Beth come down and I explained to Beth there's a mouse in here somewhere. And
she started to move everything out the way and we eventually found it in behind the computer and we put
it into a bowl. I say we, I lied in bed because I'm paralysed so. So she was on her
own with this. The only thing I could do is kind of tell her if I seen it. So we
put the cat out the way. We eventually found it behind the computer and she put it into plastic container.
So she went up in the kitchen. I wonder what she'd done with it. And it's about 20 minutes. Then
she come back down to me and she said, well mom I think the mouse will be okay. And I
said, okay, what do you do? She goes, well, I've given it some water and it drunk quite a bit.
I put some sugar in the water to help it with any shock that it may have. And it drunk
it out the spoon three times. Took it up the end of the road and I just let her out
and I watched it while it ran away underneath the bush. But no, that's the way we make the world
a little better. By doing little acts of kindness like that. That act alone has improved universe
It doesn't have to be a great big granddad And you think about that mouse. What difference is made to
that mouse? Okay, we don't know what happened to it next and we could go into a story of that.
But let's just focus on what was done and what we do know. And what we do know is the
mouse did not suffer anymore that night. Thank you, Mitzi. But please don't bring in any more mice. I don't
know why I'm telling her. She doesn't even listen to the podcast. The problem is we have this huge pressure
of doing something grand, doing something huge. And we really don't have to do anything huge.
Just those little things again and again and again makes a big difference. And I've got another carer, Kate, and
we were out walking the dog one day and there was a bee on the ground. Kate picked it up
and she put it on a leaf and she put it up on the hedge. So the sun was able
to warm its wings up and after a little bit it started moving its wings and then it flew off.
The chances are it got caught in a cold wind or a cold area while it was collecting the pollen
in order to make honey. I'm not an expert on bees but I think that's what they do. And when
they get really cold, they can't flap their wings as well. So they end up lying on the floor. Now
then, the best case scenarios in that that the sun finds them and allows them to fly back the next
day or... But very often they'll land and people will think they're dead or... That bee got a new lease
of life and hopefully it flew all the way home. And again, that changed the world. And I'm going to
share another story. Jack cornfield says about when he was with a teacher one day and he was sitting there
and a fly was in his tea. And he was sitting there thinking now I'm going to be calm. I'm
going to allow that fly to... I'm not going to be agitated by it. I'm not going to do anything.
I'm just going to sit here and allow that fly not to bother me. It's okay. It's just tea. It's
just a fly. It's just what it is. I need to just... Remain calm. And whether his teacher
noticed him or something, but his teacher came over to him and said, what's up? What's going on so well
I've got a fly in my tea, but it's okay. I'm accepting. I'm okay with it. And the teacher put
his finger in the cup of tea, got the fly out and disappeared out of the room. And they carried
on doing their chanting and whatever they were doing. And then a little while later he come in really happy.
Like really, really happy. Well, later that day, Jack cornfield caught up with him and looked up and said, I
cannot help to be inquisitive, but why did you come back in the room so happy? And he said, well,
you know that fly? I took him out and I dried him off on the side. And once he was
dry, we warmed him up and all that. And it just flew away. The fly's going to be fine. And
this is a good this is a good thing about trying to improve the world as well as trying to
accept the world. We don't have to accept everything. Just as it is. Buddhism and finding
inner peace and having stillness is not about, okay, I just accept all the bad things that are happening. No,
it's about being calm and okay with them happening and knowing what you can do something about. Now then,
remaining calm is admirable. It's amazing. Well done. You remain calm when your tea could have been potentially ruined.
However, what a better outcome to save the fly and enjoy your cup of tea? So this is about spiritualism
is is not just about remaining calm. I'm angry, but I can deal with my anger. You know, I'm sad
or shamed right at this minute, but I can deal with that. It's not about that. It's not about just
remaining calm. It's about giving back, improving the world in little ways you can. It could be like
Tony Robbins does with all the free meals that he he said he was going to give a billion or
a million free meals or something like that. I think he surpassed it already. Miles surpassed it um So whatever
you're doing, don't look at those little things as well, what can I do? But you can do many, many
little things every single day. So it's not about thinking that I've got to do grand gestures and these really
big, big grand things in order to make the world a better place. You don't. Every single
kind act makes the world a better place. Every single smile improves the whole universe. Every
single time you say hello to someone or say, how can I help you? And you just help. Every time
you read a book to a child or you give your time to someone that is feeling lonely and looking
for a connection changes the world, changes the whole universe in a better way. So
yeah, that was a rather shorter podcast today. Nevertheless, it's not less important. It's only these little small acts like
just doing this podcast. If it resonates with one of you and it helps you to recognise the
importance of the little things you do so you continue to do them, this podcast is improving the world. So
thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for reviewing the podcast. And I would love for you
to support my work if you can. Head over to my website and the link at the top says Patreon.
If you become one of the patrons, you'll get a shout out on my show. And thank you to Mo,
my first patron. And hopefully many more will add to you. Just four dollars a month will really make a
difference. Thank you. Take care. And I will see you next week for the next podcast. Bye.
