“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
Funny, like a previous blog quote about a mosquito pleased that everyone was clapping for him when he took his first flight out into the world. And you know this scenario is true, too, if you’ve ever tried sleeping with a mosquito in your room. But do you buy into the take-away the Dalai Lama intended for us?
If you and I think in terms of numbers, we as individuals are very small parts of the 7 billion people on the planet. But that doesn’t mean we don’t play a significant part.
“I am only one, but I am one,” said 19th-century author and Unitarian minister, Edward Everett Hale. “I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do."
Have you heard the story about the child walking along a shoreline that is covered with beached starfish? If you’re not familiar with it, here’s how it goes:
A young girl bends down, picks up a starfish and flings it out to sea. She tosses another, another and another. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of starfish lying helpless on the sand, above the tide line. A man walking along that same beach tells the young girl, “You’ll never be able to save them all, so why make the effort? What difference does it make?
Tossing yet another starfish out to sea, she answers, "It makes a difference for that one."
In 2021, let's not think we are too small, too old, too young, or too insignificant in any way - or not enough in any way. Let’s just make a difference.
With courage,
Charlene
