a new project: one by one

Why hello there. 

If you are usually more of a skimmer and casual picture-looker, and not one that always reads my long winded rambles.....I ask that maybe I could just steal away a few minutes of your day and have you read this....just this one time. I need your help. 

(This is long. I am sorry. Grab a snack.)

I want to start something, a project, and I need you....and you! And your sisters and your friends and your uncles and your mom. All of you. 

In last month's post I had mentioned my desire to make this little Internet space different. 

Fill it with content that will be helpful and worthwhile, instead of just wasteful and time consuming Internet fluff.

When January got too cold, we ran away to the desert. After a long day of playing on the rocks and soaking up the sunshine, we returned to the house we were staying in, dumped the sand from our shoes, and got to work on dinner. We enjoyed a grilled feast with friends and spent the evening with full bellies and long conversations. We spoke of parenting and adventures and then somehow got on the topic of "making a difference". We had been talking about different documentaries we'd all seen, and while the end credits always left us feeling inspired, we realized that we really can't do much in the form of activism. As much as we would like to run off and "save the _______", being young parents with low budgets and day to day responsibilities, it's hard to get out and DO something, even if we really wanted to. 

How can one person make a difference? Can they? 

Can I?

I started thinking.

and thinking.

Woke up in the middle of the night......thinking.

Flash forward through the next few weeks.....more thinking. Pondering. Wondering. 

What can I do? 

What can WE do? 

How to make a difference......

I started to get ideas.....

As strange as it sounds.....bloggers have power.

Weird right?

I am sometimes amazed at how much time and money people put into their blogs. 

Why spend so much on something that's not even tangible--it's not real!

 It's something that won't even be around in ten years?! 

Crafts and new fashions and awkward self portraits.....why do we need these things?

Did you know there are conferences throughout the year you can go and learn to be a better blogger? I wonder if in twenty years people will look back and wonder why they poured so much money into something flashy on their computer screen. 

And will they wish for precious hours back with their friends and families?

So much time trying to better nothing more than an image and an Internet space, when that time could be used to better the world around us.

So.

Here's an idea.

What if we used the Internet--our blogs-- as a tool for good? What if we spent some of our time and energy and talents in actually trying to make a difference, instead of just growing our readership and making ourselves look fancy. 

Let's use the power of the Internet to do something meaningful. 

Something we can look back on and feel good about when we are 103 years old.

Let's join forces for good, shall we?

No plane ticket or fancy outfit required.

So here is my idea. It's small. Simple.

It has the potential to grow......IF you can help me. I can't do it alone.

What if every few weeks I posted a challenge. Something very doable that we ALL can participate in--I know you don't need another item on your to-do list. 

Just a small action that could potentially make a difference in someone's life. 

Do a small act of service. 

Write a note to someone.

Pick up a piece of trash. 

Or how about time spent that could make US a better person--enrich our REAL life, not our Internet life.

Read a book. 

Start a journal (using paper!) 

Turn our phone off. 

Imagine the possibilities! 

And if we were all doing it together, maybe we COULD actually make a difference.

Imagine this (I like visuals)

Let's say I'm walking through a parking lot and pick up a piece of trash I see blowing across the pavement.

ONE piece of trash in the garbage.....meh. Big deal.

But let's say everyone that reads this picks up one piece of trash....right there we are filling up trash bags! Trash cans! Call the garbage man!  (double bonus if you sort recyclables!) 

Our streets and parks around the world just got a little bit cleaner. 

And then you tell your friends (and neighbors! and cousins!).....and they help out too. 

Do you see where I'm going here?

We can all work on this together--reaching out to those around us. Enriching our own lives. Little steps at a time. It's hard for one person to make a difference on our own......but one by one, maybe....just maybe....we can get something going.

Are you with me? 

I promise to make it easy. And fun! Always fun.

BUT.

One but.

Talking to the wise and knowledgeable Whitney Ingram (yes, THE Cookbook Whitney) she brought up a good point. The Internet (blogs, facebook, instagram, etc and etc) have made it so we all feel the need to brag about every little thing we do. 

This is what she had to say about serving others, 

"if you tell someone about it, it doesn't count."

I love this.

I don't want us to be bragging and posting photos of all our wonderful do-goodery. That is not the point. However, should you have incredible story of some sort, or a life changing experience.....please let me know. I would love to share your story here--it's good for us all to hear encouraging and heart warming stories of kindness. Has someone served YOU? I want to hear about that too.

But for the most part, let's keep our little acts silent, so they can all count.

Who is with me? 

Are you up for the challenge? 

Should we see if we can little by little, one by one, try to make a difference on this mighty earth?

We are going to start out as basic and simple as we can get. 

I want everyone to play along--no excuses! 

What's our first challenge?

Smile.

What?!

Yes sir and mam. Just smile. A little extra than usual. 

Smile at a stranger. 

Smile at that guy who took your parking spot.

Smile at the girl who puts her yoga mat waaaaaay too close to yours and you can smell her feet. 

Smile when you really don't want too. The world needs more smiles, so let's start today. 

You and me and you and you.

See?! Easy challenge to start us out. I would love to hear your ideas for challenges--I plan on rotating between ways we can better those around us, ourselves, and the Earth. I have my list going but would love to add some of your ideas. I want a good combination of small gestures we can do for others to spread happiness, and small changes we can make in our individual lives that will lead to us being happier.

And.....

Tell your friends! 

The more people we can get on board, the more of a difference we can actually start to make.

Please take a button if you'd like to post on your blog, and link to our challenges. 

(just paste this html code on your sidebar)

<center> <a href="http://inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com/search/label/one%20by%20one" target="_blank"><img alt="grab a button" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8520/8464082110_ebab29771e_o.jpg" /></a></center>

<center> <a href="http://inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com/search/label/one%20by%20one" target="_blank"><img alt="grab a button" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8372/8462982541_3545ddfc6d_o.png" /></a></center>

<center> <a href="http://inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com/search/label/one%20by%20one" target="_blank"><img alt="grab a button" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8390/8464082088_dfe8e31961_o.png" /></a></center>

Wow! Did you make it through that whole thing? 

Thank you for reading and for your support. 

I am so excited to work together and see what we can do.

now.....go smile at someone!