I have felt a lot of despair in my life and on some occasions some bliss. For me, thinking about all the people whose day might have been worse does not help too much. In fact, I feel very bad for all the things that some people are facing in the world right now.

Part of my despair is from feeling like there is nothing that I can personally do to help the real problems that we are facing as a world community.

When I start to feel despair I remind myself of the story of the hummingbird trying to put out a raging forest fire. He flies back and forth with one small mouthful of water at a time. Alone our actions are inconsequential yet working together we can put out raging fires. Somehow this makes me feel better.