What's the inspiration

I thought it might be worth just giving a little insight into where the inspiration for this site came from.

Last August I was at a festival, and one of the speakers there was peace activist, and member of the Simple Way community, called Shane Claiborne.

Now this is a guy who does loads of small, and just as many very big things, that make a whole heap of difference to lots of people (he worked with Mother Theresa!). So, on that basis, he's a bit beyond the scope of what I want to do here.

However, having heard him speak a couple of time now, I would also say Shane has 2 great abilities. Firstly, he manages to make the huge sacrifices he has made for his beliefs seem anything but that. Instead, they seem fun, exciting, amazing. You end up thinking - "I want to do that as well". But even if you don't. Even if you do very little (maybe even nothing), he doesn't make you feel guilty (in the way that many activists do) for you shortcomings. Instead, his positivity makes you feel inspired to do a (little) something about it.

Which is what happened to me. I came away thinking 'why be such a pessimist (see previous post). Just do something'. Letter writing for causes like Amnesty International seemed like something I could easily handle, and which could make a difference to people's lives. Although honesty forces to say that I've had a rather faltering start. I will get there though!

But thinking about the inspiration I had got from Shane, to just do something, anything, no matter how small, also led to the idea of something on-line that might inspire others. And this blog is the result: a celebration (hopefully) of small things that make a big difference. Not things I've done (I wish!), but things we've all done. Things which will hopefully inspire us all to do more, no matter how inconsequential the actions might seem. Because they will help someone.