Greetings,

If I asked you what was going on in the world, I’m sure that many of the things you shared would be the ‘bad news’ stories that we are bombarded with.  We witness injustice, find it hard to get our heads around why some things happen, and can think the problem is too big for us to do anything about.  We want to assist and can, at times, feel quite helpless to do anything at all.

In light of what has happened in the last week, I was thinking about this.  At the same time I received an email from Graham Ray.  It contained a well-known story, but it spoke into what I think many of us may have been feeling.  Let me share it with you …

Have you ever walked along a beach and seen starfish washed up?

The story goes, that a man was walking along a beach covered in starfish. As he walks along, he notices a young girl picking up starfish one by one and throwing them back into the ocean. The man approaches the girl and asks why she is bothering to throw the starfish back into the water, as there are too many for her to a difference.

The girl responds by picking up another starfish and throwing it into the ocean, saying, “I made a difference to that one.”

Perhaps this story is about the power of individual action and the importance of making a difference in the world, even if we can’t solve every problem.  Small acts of kindness and compassion can make a difference to someone, and we should not be discouraged by the scale of the problems we face.

May each one of us do what we can, in the places we find ourselves, to make a difference.

Blessings – Heather (she/her).