A Caring Revolution

My blood was boiling. Every Wednesday I drive across the bridge to the bank, and every Wednesday I run into the same irritating road congestion. It’s summer in our valley, and construction is in full swing along my route. Just across the bridge, we turn left and merge from two lanes into one. Drivers get impatient with turtling onto the bridge deck, and race to get ahead. On this day, after I’d slowed down to let the next car in, another car raced down the merging lane and cut right in front of me. There was nothing I could do.

I didn’t stay angry for long, but it bothered me that I was angry at all. Am I so stressed from my daily life and the surrounding chaos that I erupt at any experience that ticks me off? Perhaps in the ether out there, widespread anxiety is spreading during these uncertain times, as we grapple with political turmoil, trade wars, disasters, and conflict. Anxiety “in the ether” is no joke for empaths and sensitive people! It’s so overwhelming that caring can get lost. I even saw a t-shirt today that said, “Who Cares!” Now, I know that shirt may have been reflecting a recent news story, but my take on it is people are too stressed to care about anything but the price of eggs and surviving.

So how does one get beyond surviving and not caring? For sure, not consuming the news daily helps. Walking surrounded by nature helps soothe my overthinking brain. The biggest hurdle is recognizing when I need a break and then taking one. Even when the stress you feel is from something you can’t control, it helps to stop doom scrolling or doom thinking and come back to the present moment using breathwork, some form of meditation, and reframing techniques.

This time, I reframed the day’s events by searching for positive news on my computer and came across articles about children who were planting gardens, discovering Myan tombs, and raising funds for inclusive school programs. Children are natural positivity makers. They get an idea and, with support, they thrive doing what feels great to them. Somehow, they don’t get caught up in the uncertainty that plagues adults. There, I felt better, but there was something else that niggled at my heart about my screaming fit, and it had to do with purpose.

According to research, having purpose staves off stress and can help you channel challenges toward learning and growth. Purpose fuels hope and optimism, and purposeful people tend to have better health and longevity....

In short, a sense of purpose is very strongly associated with mental and physical well-being—and that’s why it is core to most scientific definitions of what it means to be happy in life.

 Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas, Ph.D., “How Strong Is Your Sense of Purpose in Life?”, Greater Good Magazine, April 11, 2022. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_strong_is_your_sense_of_purpose_in_life#:~:text=According%20to%20research%2C%20having%20purpose,have%20better%20health%20and%20longevity.

For most of my life, I struggled to find my purpose. I can attest that our purpose isn’t a hobby we pick up in our spare time or after we retire; it’s a continuous journey of self-discovery and contribution that enriches our lives. What does my purpose have to do with yelling at a reckless driver? Then I got it. My response was an opportunity to de-stress and turn my anger into something else.

In my head, I took the thought a step farther. What if my purpose had the potential to transform not me, but also those around me, and perhaps even the world? If you don’t think that’s possible, you haven’t heard about the caring ripple effect. Everyone’s caring actions, words, or thoughts start ripples of waves flowing outward around them like inspiration, hope, care, beauty, forgiveness, love, peace, happiness, joy. Perhaps anger, frustration, shame, regret, doubt, or emotional pain generate ripples of anxiety. Whatever feelings we get, it is our responsibility to choose our response no matter what’s out there coming at us, and more than that, it provides an opportunity to learn, just like my frustration and anger about the driver. As this quote says, “…these indirect effects are often not as small and removed as I believe many would think.”

‘The items I buy, the people I interact with, the things I say, I believe can each have their cascading effects that ripple through society, ’he says. ‘That is why it is important to try and be a good person, to create a positive influence. One thing I also think about is how these indirect effects are often not as small and removed as I believe many would think.’

Nathan Chandler, “What Is the Butterfly Effect and How Do We Misunderstand It?” 1 January 1970. HowStuffWorks.com. <https://science.howstuffworks.com/math-concepts/butterfly-effect.htm> 22 July 2025

Quote: Alessandro Filazzola, a community ecologist, data scientist, and post-doctoral fellow at the University of Alberta

My feelings about a terrible driver began this post. His action triggered me. Whether or not my frustration was justified, the experience was a learning opportunity, so what did I learn? Over two months of editing and writing, plus a writing intensive workshop, plus housework, plus the world out there drained my energy reserves. Overwhelmed and stressed, I lost it and screamed at the reckless driver in front of me. I’m sure he didn’t hear me lose it, but I heard myself.

Even when doing something I love to do, like writing, there are limits, so I gave myself permission to take a break. To take care of myself, I spent more time with my favourite people and indulged in creative pursuits. Take it from a former push-til-I-drop person, I was thankful I didn’t push myself until I got sick. That’s a win in any book.

That win came with a surprise. I was suddenly grateful for the ripple wave of a careless driver reaching me, teaching me more about boundaries, balance, and responding with care. He taught me again that caring for myself is not something to squeeze in between work and our crazy lives. I also learned that my purpose has everything to do with what I’m putting out there in the world.

Looking at our lives, digging deep to find meaning when something or someone interrupts our status quo is what most of us don’t do, and we continue in the same patterns and behaviour until we die. Isn’t life more than that? Isn’t life worth having a passionate purpose? Our stress levels say absolutely it is, and I know there are millions of us that generate ripples of care. I wonder what a caring ripple effect might create multiplied over millions of people. A caring revolution?