Tuesday, August 17, 2010

One Small Step at a Time

For the past six months or better I have felt like I needed to reconnect with a neighbor. She has been on my mind and in my thoughts almost daily. I sent an e-mail to her a couple months back. Left if at that. I had done my part, only she continued to be on my mind. I recently learned of some hardships she is enduring. If only I had listened to the spirit and REALLY tried to reconnect with her. Her burden would not have gone away, but perhaps I could have helped lighten her load.

We focus most of the time on the things that we can do in our own lives to improve our situation and happiness. We must never forget that although we are the only ones that can control our actions, reactions, and feelings there are other people around us that we must look after and be there for. Are we doing everything we can for the ones that we love each and every day? Is there anything we can do to help improve the lives of others today? Big changes happen one small step at a time. Let us find one additional thing each day that we do to help improve the life of someone we know.

IT IS THE LITTLE THINGS THAT MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
There was a man taking a morning walk at the beach. He saw that along with the morning tide came hundreds of starfish and when the tide receded, they were left behind and with the morning sun rays, they would die. The tide was fresh and the starfish were alive. The man took a few steps, picked one and threw it into the water. He did that repeatedly. Right behind him there was another person who couldn't understand what this man was doing. He caught up with him and asked, "What are you doing? There are hundreds of starfish. How many can you help? What difference does it make?" This man did not reply, took two more steps, picked up another one, threw it into the water, and said, "It makes a difference to this one."
What difference are we making? Big or small, it does not matter. If everyone made a small difference, we'd end up with a big difference, wouldn't we?