May
Make a Difference
The goal of Heathenism is to use these principles in your everyday life. Worship and study is a small thing compared to how you live. If you are trying to be 100% Heathen all the time, you are not living the belief. Heathenism is not about being; it is about doing.
There is a world of things to do. Our place is not to isolate from others, or to insulate ourselves from non-Heathens. We have as much right to participate in this world as anyone else. In fact, we have an obligation to participate.
Join the everyday world!
Go to a ballgame and cheer for your favorite teams. Sign up for the PTA where your children go to school. Join the volunteer fire department. Become a member of a veteran’s group. Help your children try out for Little League. Run for local office. These are but a few of the many ways you can participate in the world around you.
There are new Heathens who think that being Heathen means focusing so much on the old lore that they lose sight of the everyday world. As the old saying goes, “If you focus on one truth to the exclusion of all others, that truth becomes a lie and you become a fanatic.” Being Heathen means living in the real world more than 95% of the time. Our belief is not expressed in what we read, or in our rites or such. Our belief is expressed in how we live. We need to be part of life. We cannot hide or minimize our place in it. We have to be out there doing things and making a difference.
Worship and study are brief instances where we touch base with our beliefs. In effect, we use it to charge up our spiritual batteries. Our real work is in our everyday lives. That is where we make our spirituality a reality.
We each need to be the person of whom it can be said, “The world is a better place because he is in it.”
Make the world a better place where you live. Be there. Participate. Enjoy the world the Gods have given us. Make a difference!
