There’s a hidden power that becomes available when we take a step toward service.

I will engage once I have more time…..

I will participate once my kids are older…..

I will get involved once I work on myself….

I have said all of the above things myself at various points in my life. I did not feel I had everything I needed to help…to engage…to serve.

Responding to the needs around us doesn’t require that we be perfect. In fact, our monkey brains telling us  that we cannot help until we are “more”  – more calm, more mature, more aware, more stable – is exactly what keeps us small and hidden.

It is what keeps us separate. It is exactly what holds us back.

We learn stability, we grow, we wake up the more engaged we are.

I know I talk a lot about the transformational power of service. I talk a lot about service….a lot.  Let me take sometime to talk about what service is NOT.

Service is not:

• Imposing solutions onto others, or even on ourselves
• Following a prescribed ideal of duty
•  Born from any kind of sense of superiority or division
• Self-focused
• Separating
• A special practice

We cannot and we do not live in isolation. Service is the highway that takes us each from “me” to “we”.

Not only can everyone serve, but we need everyone to serve. Participation is the only way to begin manifesting the world we hope for.Change depends on all of us working to make real what we sense is possible in others and in ourselves.

Today. Right now. Do it.

Enter  community with humility and an open heart—leaving  the guilt, shame and fear behind.

Let conversation, connection and collaboration be the map that guides you.

When we offer our money, time, and attention to others, we don’t watch resources disappear into a void; instead, they strengthen all that connects us.

Offering who we are right at this moment allows us to be enough.