Most Inspiring Month of My Blog Journey So Far: Reflections On 1000 Voices Speak For Compassion

I am just over five feet tall. When I walk through a crowd, I feel so small and lost, all the heads of those all around me towering above me, and I feel trapped.

I blog to have a voice from amongst this crowd and the claustrophobia lessens with every word I write.

It’s amazing to me , that a blogger in one place could write a post about being accountable,

We All Need The Village,

and a few other bloggers can read this and the decision to do something great is then made.

1000 Voices Speak For Compassion

Often times any further action won’t happen. A few bloggers will have commented, nothing more coming from it.

Occasionally though, an idea can snowball and grow into something so much greater than anyone could ever have imagined. that is what happened here.

(Join the Facebook group here.)

This has been the most inspiring month of my blogging journey thus far.

I needed this to come along. Things happen at just the right time, when they are truly meant to.

And so, like throwing a single stone out into the water, the ripples spread out from only one blog post and the next blog post and the next.

Then the Facebook group and the 1000 Voices blog.

http://1000speak.wordpress.com

Before you know it, there’s over 1000 bloggers, writers, musicians, artists, and others who care about compassion in a world so much in need.

I was honoured to be a part of it, one week or so into the frenzy. I could just sense it was going to be BIG!

I did not just wait for February 20th, the date set for us to publish posts on compassion. I couldn’t narrow down my subject matter and I wanted to post right away. I was bursting with compassion, if only I had others who would stand up for it with me.

My blog has always been a place of compassionate writings. I wanted to use this platform to make a mark somehow, even if only a few read my pleas.

There are so many posts out there now, flooding the online world with good vibes. I couldn’t narrow it down if I tried.

For the last day or so I have been reading, commenting, and sharing like a mad woman. I wish I could read every last one, but I would need months. This is a good thing in my view.

🙂

I will continue to do this through the rest of the weekend and for as long as it takes to learn all I can about what compassion means to my fellow bloggers out there.

As for my own post, I decided to take lemons and make lemonade for Feb 20th.

When the interview, I had planned to do fell through, I instead asked if I could feature my interviewees for 1000speak and they agreed.

So sometimes my total lack of technology ability, yeah I lost the recording of me asking them the questions, it can still work out. I say this to stop myself from kicking my own butt for not saving my recording, but the post really is still about two amazing people.

I have also just recently figured out how to reblog and so my own 1000 Speak post may have gotten lost in the mix yesterday. That is why I am recapping and including it again here. I don’t mean to push it for myself, but because I think the work they do with youth and the environment is so wonderful and I want others to see how very unique this couple is:

Planting the Seeds of Compassion

Other posts I’ve recently done for 1000Speak are as follows:

**My sister is one of the most compassionate and empathetic people I know.

Sisters Think Alike

**The important role compassion plays in literature.

It’s A Sin To Kill A Mockingbird

**The difficulties and the need for compassion for the big stories of the day.

In The News and On My Mind

**Let’s talk openly about depression.

Love and Depression

**The importance of remembering those lost and to making sure we never forget them.

I Choose Compassion

**My personal launch for this whole thing to begin with.

My voice Amongst the Thousands

Compassion is a difficult thing to write about, either overwhelming or, on a bad day, out-of-sight…out of mind.

I could probably go on writing about it for years, but I can see how it could get tricky:

Compassion Fatigue: A Light Bulb Moment!

(Love her quotes.)

I am not in denial of all the rotten stuff still going on in the world today and I am still cynical half of the time at least:

Compassion In An Age Of Cynicism

That is exactly why I need this all the more.

It looks like this may become a monthly thing and I couldn’t be happier. We need to keep it going, for our own sanity. This post rounds out this past month nicely, explaining what might be the plan going forward (with a few hints) and a nice list of those who have made this all possible because I couldn’t gather all the posts I would have liked to share here:

If not me, then Who? All of us. #1000Speak the Thank Yous

I know the ladies who started this are probably growing a little tired beneath all the people thanking them for starting #1000Speak, but I am going to do it again here.

I needed this to start the new year.

So thank you ladies and gentlemen too.

Other than the

Redefining Disability Awareness Challenge,

this is giving my blog a new purpose and a new sense of direction, a facelift of sorts. It is the perfect highlight for what I am most passionate about: compassion and equal rights.

Having been born visually impaired and as a visually impaired woman, I rely on the kindness and the compassion of others, on a daily basis. I would be nowhere without them.

I will not throw stones of judgment at other people, but will throw my own stone out into the huge ocean of kindness and compassion and hope to see some lasting ripples.

#1000Speak on Twitter