The story of the hummingbird

We are constantly being bombarded by problems that we face and sometimes we can get completely overwhelmed.

A story is told by one celebrated Kenyan environmental activist, women's right advocate, and 2004 Nobel Peace prize Laureat late Professor Wangari Maathai

The story of the hummingbird is about this huge forest being consumed by a fire. All the animals in the forest come out and they are transfixed aa they watch the forest burning and they feel overwhelmed, very powerless, except this little hummingbird. It says \"lam going to do something about the fire\" So it flies to the nearest stream and takes a drop of water, puts it on the fire, and goes up and down, up and down as fast as it can.

In the meantime all the other animals, much bigger animals like the elephant with  bigger trunk that could bring much more water, they are standing there helpless. And they are saying to the hummingbird \"what do you think you're doing? You are too little, this fire is too big, your wings are too little and your beak is so small that you can only bring a small drop of water at a time.

But as they continue to discourage it, it turns to them and without wasting time tells them \"lam doing the best l can\"

And to me this is what l wish all of us could do. We should be like a hummingbird. It may be insignificant, but certainly l don't want to be like other animals watching the planet go down the drain. I will be the hummingbird. I will do the best l can.

Healing is not just \"a good vibe only\", chant, it is a social justice issue. Healing goes beyond the inner work we do for ourselves, it extends to our communities. When we thrive,our communities thrive, and when our communities thrive, we thrive. The thing is none of us are created equally, so we have to acknowledge that what it means to \"do the work\" won't look the same for all of us. Healing is not only about feeling good, its also about feeling safe, and some of us have to fight to fully heal from oppressive systems that perpetuate the symptoms of trauma in the first place.

My hope for 2020 is to connect with people all over the world to fight for common goal - collaboration, human connection and building each other. I envision a future where there is room in the discussion about global poverty for grassroots voices to be heard alongside the voices of the rich and influential people. As a team we can achieve much.