Thoughtful Thursday: thinking about how we can all make a difference

Earlier this week I read a blog post by Kristine at CandidKay that resonated strongly with me.  I don’t know about you, but the challenges the world is facing – and the way in which the people in charge are facing them – seem so overwhelming that at times I despair.  Kristine’s post reminded me that baby steps and civility can indeed make a difference. It gave me a little bit of reassurance. As she says near the end of her post:

I talk to so many people who want to “boil the ocean.” They talk of the state of our world and feel helpless. What if we each just did what was in front of us to do, to the best of our ability, and cared about the result? I tell my son often to throw things in the recycling bin. “What difference does it make, Mom, when half the world doesn’t?” he says, cynically. And then I remind him that thousands of people doing the right thing adds up. It’s the domino effect at work.

Her post, It All Adds Up, gives several simple examples of how each of us can make a difference to others.  And, my, how badly we need that. Here’s a reblog of her post. I hope you will click on the link that follows this intro, read it through (it’s not too long!), and then think about how you can become one of those examples for someone. Here goes:

Maria made my tiny self look like a towering giant. But the power that barely 5-ft. woman wielded was amazing. The cleaning woman in the Michigan Ave. high-rise office building I worked in decades ago lived, I’m sure, far from the Chicago office tower she cleaned. Her English was limited but she was generous enough to try to teach me a few Polish phrases. I was a 20-something who worked late often, so when she came to clean my office, chances were I was still occupying it.

Maria was a whirlwind who worked hard, her persistent body odor a testament to the physical oomph she put behind her work. Dust bunnies cowered, I’m sure, when they saw her coming.  [… ]

(Click on link to keep reading CandidKay’s It All Adds Up)

It all adds up — candidkay

An article in yesterday’s Guardian provides another excellent example of the power of reaching out to others. Patrick Stewart (aka Jean Luc Picard) pays tribute to a teacher who made that kind of difference to him and changed the direction of his life.  We certainly all owe a vote of thanks to Patrick Stewart’s teacher! Check out A moment that changed me: Patrick Stewart on the teacher who spotted his talent and saved him.

I hope you all are able to make a difference in someone’s life today. It may only require a smile and a kind word.