The Gritty Virtual Assistant Blog

With all the human rights abuses and natural disasters that happen all over the world, it can sometimes feel really overwhelming. You think, omigosh… I’m just one little ol’ person. I’m not Amnesty International or Red Cross. What can I do that will have any impact at all? I can’t shoulder this burden of human woe and misery all by myself.

How I ended up answering that for myself long ago was to give myself permission to not take on all the cares of the world. As a mere mortal, you can only do what you can do. No one is ever required to shoulder the world’s burden alone. The Universe is pretty smart at divvying up life purposes. Your life purpose might not be foreign aid and volunteer humanitarian relief (and if it is, trust me, the Universe will let you know). But you can support those efforts through your financial contributions and spreading the word. What we as individuals might think is only a tiny, meaningless drop in the bucket is actually huge because of what all our collective drops amount to together. So I trust and leave it to the Universe to make the right opportunities known to me about when, where and how I can help, and I remind myself that every effort, not matter how humble, contributes to the whole and matters very much indeed.

To reduce the overwhelm, I do tend to focus on helping my own community and countrymen first. Like I say, we can’t be responsible for all the cares in the world… it’s just too much to bear all by ourselves individually. I sort of look at it like the concentric ring theory… if everyone took care of their own backyard and community first, problems could be taken care of locally and support could eventually overlap beyond local boundaries and extend outwardly from there.

At the same time, I fervently believe that we are all our brothers’ keepers.  There are just certain events and situations that catastrophically exceed the community and resources available to our fellow human beings in other parts of the world… the kind of community and resources we in the U.S. are blessed and fortunate to have. Those are the needs that end up speaking to me and that the Universe calls to my attention. And Haiti is in such need of our support right now. Can you imagine living through that kind of devastation and not having the kind of medical care and emergency support that we have in our own country? Can you imagine the misery and suffering and despair and utter feeling of hopelessness? I just can’t sit back and not help in my own small way.

Here’s what I plan on doing… First, I’m going to make a personal donation today to a Haiti disaster relief organization. I ask you to do the same. Remember, every single little bit counts. Your $1 donation is as helpful and important as the next person’s $1000 donation so please contribute something, anything. It really, really matters.

Then, I’m going to make a second donation of 10% of all sales on my Virtual Assistant business products this month. I don’t tend to market that stuff much because it’s not the real business I’m in (I’m in the administrative support business), but you may see a slight increase in marketing so that I can beef up the contribution efforts of my pledge. If you are in my affiliate program, please do let your audience know that 10% of their purchase will be going to Haiti disaster relief. (And in case you are wondering, you will still get full commissions from all your referrals).

Please join me in letting the people of Haiti know the world cares about them in their time of need right now.