Those who have known me for a while have heard occasionally about efforts to bring to market ocean wave driven pumps. Since 2009, I have been involved in the development of sustainable wave energy in some form or another. I still consult on the projects from time to time but have largely stepped back to focus on something I can influence more affectively.
What I realize during this process is that there are many large things we need to address and can do so collectively; access to fresh water being a big one of those things. However, there are times as individuals when we take on a project and it feels like spinning tires. There will be a time in everyone’s life when your efforts don’t seem to generate results, despite your best determinations. Reasons may not even have to do with you and it can simply be a condition of the times.
If I take the wave energy effort for instance, it is not that coastal communities will not need fresh water, or that the technology is impossible, but that currently there is no visible disaster and therefore is repeatedly tabled for funding. If I cannot make a meaningful change trying to achieve a goal, maybe the goal is too big, my bubble of enacting action out of tune with what is needed in that moment. When that is the case, why not change the rules of the game. Shrink whatever effort you are trying to enact change on until that pressure to enact change is realized.
I cannot fund the development of wave energy on my own, but I can build a creative home that doubles as a school for sustainable education. I still move towards a goal even if only at a local level. It may take all my energy, but it is something I can affect change on and so I begin locally.
By changing the size of the bubble, movement is generated which one is responsible for. It is easier to change direction than to start the ball rolling. This is true with Newton’s laws of motion and appears to be the same for our personal abilities to enact change. Who knows, maybe that bubble will one day expand once again with implementation, even if only slightly to start. Maybe one day, the original goal is suddenly achieved, or maybe something bigger. The point is to adjust the size of your effort or bubble until something moves for you in those larger aspirations of enacting positive change.
Finding “no” as an answer to one question does not mean it is the answer to all questions.
A tree takes root within the largest lake in South America… finding the right spot and right moment in time.
