We are living in challenging times, Its easy to feel over whelmed and increasingly disillusioned when we see those in positions of authority and power around us behaving as if they’ve just joined the largest Mad Hatter tea party ever. Whichever side of the pond you are reading this on and whichever side of the fence you are on I have no doubt you will have concerns about where our World is right now.
When we feel powerless its easy to fall into apathy, to feel disempowered and to feel like one voice is just a very small drop in a very large, often shark infested ocean. But what are challenges if not opportunities to test our strength, our resilience and our courage? When the British MP and humanitarian Jo Cox was slain last week, when a gun man walked into a night club and gunned down and killed 49 people in Orlando, this was not Politics this was Hate and the response globally has been an outpouring of determined and unequivocal Love. When politicians deliberately pour kerosene on already scorched communities and voters they cant be surprised when indiscriminate fires break out, collateral damage is inevitable.
So where do you start, how do you make a difference? The last time I checked I was a member of the human race, not a white member, not a black member, not straight, not gay, not liberal, not conservative, not clever, not uneducated, not Christian, not Muslim, not married not single but just a fully signed up member of the human race and surely I have a responsibility to other members of the same race not to turn my back. Aren’t these people my family, my community too? When I watch the news I don’t see a boat full of Syrian refugees as a drain on my taxes, I see desperate people experiencing unimaginable lives and making choices I pray my family never has to make.
But what if we cant make a difference the way Jo Cox did? We cant all be so driven, so passionate, so motivated but we can all make a difference, to each other, to ourselves. Whilst teaching away last week I got some news about a friend, difficult news, the type of news that makes you feel helpless and ask questions like, why him, again? Firstly, I should tell you a little about him.
I met Jon through Kathi Ross-Nash, I was nervous, anxious, full of insecurities and there he was, full of light, humour, grace and gentle encouragement with a little dose of Jazz hands to ease my fears. We shared training together, he took me through my slutty cat paces in a 1-1 at Kathi’s studio http://ift.tt/28IJ6C9 and introduced me to Chocolate Martinis at http://ift.tt/11zZlnj on the upper West side, an addiction I will happily keep for life. Some people you tell everything to in an evening and you know that your life is better for having told them. I haven’t known Jon long, I’m not a life long friend but I would get on a plane tomorrow if he needed me to bring him Take out, because, well, that’s what friends do isn’t it? So my friend has Cancer, again, and well quite frankly it sucks but then I saw what his friends were doing about it, we cant take away the fact its happened but we can come together and take some of the day to day pressures off. And that is what communities, friends and families do. They come together and they make a difference. So I’m asking you, as someone passionate about Pilates to help make a difference, what if you forfeited your daily Starbucks or your Pilates 1-1 this week and used it to help another Pilates teacher, colleague, friend you haven’t made yet? If we all pulled together regardless of our backgrounds, training, lineage and experience, just think of the difference you could make to one person, today. Because that’s the point of family isn’t it?. To make a difference.
Please consider donating to support Jon through his battle via http://ift.tt/28IJ5xU
With Love and respect.
Suzy Mitchell
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