Sometimes it is good to look past that and notice the profound effect we are having on the world even when we may not feel like anyone knows we're here or not. Have you ever noticed how much the behind-the-scenes people actually accomplish? I think we humans affect our world much more than we suspect. I also find I care less and less what people think, moment to moment, as I come to uderstand what my identity in Christ is. I care much more now whether I make a contribution to the world than I once did, and less that I ever get any recognition for it. I find that I am much more connected to what I know inside and what I feel, and being ignored or invalidated just doesn't seem to hit that old hurt spot anymore.

A wonderful sermon a friend of ours preached recently comes to mind., He was talking about the way love is expressed now in our culture, and the expectations people have in their marriages and actually most types of relationships. People staret thinking the other person will make them happy. Then they achieve a state where they think they can make each other happy, selflessly. They often settle for that. But the true intimacy, he described, comes when those two people stop gazing into each others' eyes, join hands, and turn outward together to face the world and devote their energies to those passions they share. He said, why see the sunset in your lover's eyes when you can sit side by side seeing it together and know the intimacy of feeling that your lover sees it the same way you do?

I think of that often now and it has really helped me focus away from the too-human MeMeMe/TheyTheyThey stuff and instead see what needs doing around me.