The Starfish

I have always loved the story about the star fish, I heard it when I was younger- it touched me and changed the way I thought about things. The past few years it has taken on a little different meaning to me... I know I am just a "drop in the bucket" compared to all the other people in the world and all the amazing leaders and people who volunteer their entire lives to make a difference in the world, but I hope that when I am out and about each day I can touch someone around me and make their life a little brighter, a little easier. Anyways- just a thought! Some days are pretty challenging and I feel pretty blessed that I managed to roll myself out of bed and take a shower! So, for those of you who have no idea what I am talking about with this star fish story here it is- there are a bunch of different versions but this is one I like :) (oh- and I wish I could take credit for this picture but I found it on Google...)

There was once a man who was on vacation on the coast. One evening he decided to take a midnight stroll down the deserted beach. There was a full moon and down the beach he could make out what appeared to be a boy who would scurry around, pick something up and throw it back into the ocean. As the man drew closer to the boy he could see that the beach was littered with starfish. As he reached the boy he asked him what he was doing. The boy explained that with each full moon the high tide would wash the star fish so far up the beach that they were destined to die the next day in the hot sun. The man responded that there mush be thousands of miles of beach and millions of stranded starfish- how much difference did this one boy hope to make? The boy pondered the question for a moment, looked back at the starfish in his hand, and tossed it as hard as he could back into the life-giving sea and answered, "It made a difference to that one."

I hope as we all come to a stranded starfish in our life we can toss it into the ocean and make a difference.

Live happy, live healthy and remember you are loved!

Kira and Aaron