For as long as I can remember I've been talking about opportunities. Opportunities are everywhere, yet as a general rule w rarely seize them, or at the very least even identify them. I speak of opportunities to kids, reminding them of their duty to chase those opportunities, make of them what they will, exploit and use and learn from and grow through those opportunities every chance they get, I speak to adults of recognising the opportunities they so readily walk by every day; opportunities to learn and live and create and help others...
Just last week I was privileged enough to see how free opportunities can be, by speaking at and participating in the Outward Bound National Aspiring Leaders conference.
What struck me then, and what continues to strike and effect me every day, is the awareness of young people to the things that just aren't good enough. We're talking about kids from extremely hard backgrounds, kids who shouldn't have been through all that they have in their young lives... yet they they were, conscious not only of their story, but also of the hardships being faced around them. I watched as these amazing young men and women were overcome with emotion that their friends were addicted to alcohol and drugs, were living on the streets, were being bullied and assaulted... More than their tears, more than the pain they so obviously felt at the social circumstances in which they lived, I was taken aback by their compassion, their extraordinary capacity to care, in spite of all their heartbreak and pain, for the people around them.
In spite of everything, these young adults were looking for and creating opportunities for themselves and those around them.
Maybe it's because of M, maybe it's because of AJ, maybe it's because of both of them that I was so struck by how amazing the young women at this summit were... There was the young women determined to provide breakfast for her schoolmates, because some kids couldn't afford to eat and their work suffered as a result. There was a young woman who wanted to use sport to bring together young people and overcome social barriers (sound familiar?). There was a young woman impassioned enough to speak on behalf of tormented animals, and promise to run an education campaign to teach other young people how to handle and approach animals. There was a young woman determined to provide an alternative to her indigenous friends besides alcohol and a life of crime...
Only a few days later I was blessed to be able to visit my gorgeous god-daughter. There's nothing but opportunity ahead of her, and I couldn't help but pray that she would grow up to always look for opportunities, the same way those wonderful young men and women had.
My life is ridiculously difficult and challenging at times, to the point where i can't really see how the Sun is going to rise the next day, yet there they are, these rays of light, peeking out from behind the mountains of pain and struggle and unfortunate circumstance, reminding me that just as surely as the Sun does rise, change will come.
Oh yes it will.
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