|
.
A friend of mine was walking
along in Florida Beach the morning after Hurricane Cassandra
had stuck. As he walked along the water’s edge, he saw that
the storm’s frenzied waves, howling winds and torrid rains had
washed thousands of starfish up onto the beach. They lay
stranded on the sand, in danger of dying from the sun’s
relentless rays beating down on them.
Just then he noticed alone figure at the other end of the
beach, stopping and standing, stopping and atanding, again and
again. As he approached the figure he realized it was a woman,
and that she was picking up starfish one by one, and throwing
them back into the water.
When he was near enough to speak to the woman, he said to her:
“Look at how many hundreds of starfish there are drying on the
sand. How do you think that what you are doing can possibly
make a difference?
”Once again she bent down, picked up another starfish, and as
she tossed it into the ocean, she replied simply:
“It makes a difference to this one.”
(From “Circles of Compassion, A
Collection of Humane Words and Work”,
edited by Elaine Sichel, published by Voice & Vision
Publishing, 1995)
|
