Bite-Size Pieces

Thought for the day:  We cannot all do great things in life, but we can all do small things in great Love.  [Mother Teresa]

[source]

Do you ever feel a sense of impending doom? Like you're trapped and helpless, with a  pounding heart, and quivering legs, just waiting for the weight of the world to squish you like a pancake?

(Me neither.)

Even so, with a few minor changes, I'm gonna re-run a post that addresses that very issue. It first ran in August of 2011 as One Plus One Adds Up, and I think it's just as relevant now as it was then.











Thought for the day:  To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, that is to have succeeded.   Ralph Waldo Emerson

Snoopy isn't the only one.

Life seems to be dishing out plenty of things to worry about these days, doesn't it? A number of the blogs I follow have reflected that worry, and it's generally lined with a layer of depression, and topped with a heaping dose of frustration. Even a Pollyanna like me has to admit that it can be downright discouraging to see that humanity's still struggling with some of the same old scourges it's dealt with time and time again: hunger, poverty, racism, injustice, ignorance, war, famine, terrorism,  etc, etc, etc.

                                                  But it doesn't have to be discouraging.

Life's problems can be overwhelming.

                                                            But they don't have to be.

If we allow ourselves to dwell on the overwhelming magnitude of global problems, it's gonna get us down. I mean, what can we DO about those monumental problems but fret and worry about them?

                                                  Actually, there is something we can do.

                                                                 It's time for a story:

A woman was walking along the beach on a beautiful sunny day. All was right in her world, until she came to a stretch of sand covered with starfish — thousands and thousands of starfish. All colors, all sizes, as far as the eye could see. As she looked down at them, she was overwhelmed with sadness, because she knew the poor things were all doomed to die there on that beach. 

But she bent over, and very gently picked up one of the starfish, and threw it splat! into the water.

Another woman came along, and stood watching with a sneer on her face, as the first woman continued to pick up the starfish, one at a time, and toss them splat! into the water.

"You're a fool!" the second woman. "You can't save all those starfish!"

                                            "No," said the first woman. "But I can save...

THIS one ...

and THIS one ...

And THIS one!"

When the big picture is too enormous to deal with in one unwieldy chunk, the best way to cope may be to break it into smaller pieces. No, that woman couldn't save every starfish, and it's true that even if she worked day and night until she collapsed in exhaustion, her rescue efforts wouldn't make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things, especially to the thousands of starfish that died in the sand.

But her efforts made a tremendous difference to the starfish she did save.

The same concept applies to each of us. Maybe we can't solve the world's problems, but we can make a positive difference in the lives of the people we encounter every day. Something as simple as a smile and a kind word can have an enormous impact on someone's day and outlook. A smile may be over in a flash, but the memory of it may last a lifetime. 

And we can do MORE.

Part of the frustration so many people feel at the scope of world problems these days comes from of a sense of helplessness. But we aren't helpless. We can brighten the corner where we are. We can volunteer and make a positive difference in our communities. There are programs in every town in this country, for sure, and possibly in most towns in the world, where volunteers can help the hungry, the sick, the poverty-stricken. An ant can't fit an entire cow into its mouth, but it can eat it... the trick is to break it down into bite-sized pieces.

Let's save as many starfish as we can.

                                        Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.