Want to help? Start here.

Marianne Williamson has said plenty of wise things, but one especially stuck with me. She pointed out that people who are involved in solving enormous problems tend to feel less helpless than those who don’t participate. I thought of those words last night listening to President Obama’s speech. Earlier in the day, callers on public radio were surmising about the speech and several of them said, “I hope he shows us how we can help.”

When the speech was over, I began seeing messages on Twitter and in my mailbox saying things like, “I’m ready to join the Peace Corps,” and “I want to do something now.” That led me to think about people who have found creative ways to solve problems and make life better right around them. Today I want to pass along a few of those stories.

A couple of years ago, Barbara Sher sent out a mailing to her list inviting them to send her flowers. She explained that her neighborhood florist was having a difficult time so Barbara came up with a creative way to help. She invited  her readers to order flowers from the shop to be sent to Barbara. I was on the phone within minutes of getting the mailing.

Barbara Sher lives in New York, but it’s not just cities that benefit when we support local small businesses. Another Barbara wrote a popular and fascinating book about a year long experiment  she and her family conducted. The experiment involved buying only food raised in their neighborhood, grown themselves or learning to live without. Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is her eye-opening account of that exploration.

Kingsolver is part of a expanding movement of folks who are determined to be locavores, dedicated to buying local food. Happily, that movement is spreading outside farmer’s markets as people look for other ways to shop locally. In December, Natalie Ermann Russell wrote an article called Local & Loving It which shared her plan to celebrate birthdays with gifts from her community in Virginia. 

While it’s not always possible to buy everything locally, more and more of us are looking in our own backyards first. When we do, we discover all sorts of entrepreneurs who are thrilled to have us as customers. Alice Barry has made exploring small town small businesses a weekend hobby. It’s a fun and inspiring way to spread entrepreneurial spirit. 

Want to build a better world? Your own backyard is a fine starting place. My sister sent me an article about Debbie Fox, owner of a jewelry store in Ventura, CA, who had seen a huge increase in the number of people bringing their jewelry in to sell. Often they left the store in tears, having sold family heirlooms in order to raise emergency cash. So Fox Fine Jewelry decided to give back to the community that had supported their business. The response was amazing. Take a moment and read the entire story.

Finally, there’s Jeff Lowenfels, past president of the Garden Writers of America. Fourteen years ago, he starting a project called Planting a Row for the Hungry. He urges gardeners to add an extra row of vegetables and donate them to a local organization that feeds the hungry. Here in Las Vegas, the Doolittle Senior Citizen Center community garden has donated 3,513 pounds of produce to local soup kitchens since it began participating in 2003.

Making a difference can begin anywhere, anytime, by anyone. Flowers, necklaces, vegetables. What have you got to contribute?

In down economies, the only thing that’s going to change things is changing things.~ Seth Godin

PS Did you notice how often President Obama used the word “entrepreneur” in his speech? We have our marching orders.