My oldest daughter turned 13 this week. First of all–WOW! I have a teenager!! Yikes!!!
Second of all: For her birthday, instead of a typical party, she chose to gather 5 of her closest friends and do something significant. She has (rightly) been frustrated and angry as of late about the amount of trees being cut down near our house to build more houses, and especially saddened by the increased number of homeless deer roaming the streets because their forest homes are disappearing faster than human homes are appearing. So Sarah decided to do something about it. She decided to plant trees for her birthday. Collectively we and the other volunteers planted more than 800 trees!!! Pretty neat, huh?!
Now, did she reforest the Pacific NW? No. Did the deer suddenly have new homes? No. Did it reverse global warming? No. And yet, this action changed the world. How? Because her friends returned to our house that day, covered in mud, as happy as can be, and repeating countless times how amazing this birthday party was, how cool an idea, how much fun it was…they saw the idea of a birthday party in a whole new way.
Sarah was a leader that day. It took courage to invite her friends to that kind of party–she worried if they would have a good time–but she did it all the same. They loved it–and not just because she planned a delicious Mud Pie as a fitting and perfect topper to celebrate that day! It was HER 13th birthday, a significant year most would agree, and she spent it planting trees. In the rain.
Leadership isn’t position, it’s behavior. Leadership doesn’t tell us what to do, it leads and invites us to join in the possibility. That’s what Sarah did. She turned frustration into action and invited us in. And we join in, because, in doing so, we get to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.
How will you lead today?
Photo via @sage_solar on Flickr, CC License.
