Yesterday, after a particularly frustrating interaction with several people trying to free themselves of addiction, someone reminded me of the Starfish Story. 

The Starfish Story as it was told to me:  A boy and his little sister were walking on the beach.  They came upon an area where hundreds of starfish had been left stranded to die on the beach when the tide went out.  The little girl started picking up the starfish and throwing them back into the ocean.  Her brother looked at her and said, “Why are you doing that?  There’s too many, you’re not going to make a difference”.  The little girl picked up another starfish, throwing it back into the ocean and said to her brother, “I made a difference for that one”.  And continued to throw the starfish back into the ocean, one by one. 

This person reminded me that I was making a difference because I was making a difference to them and encouraged me to look around and see that I am making a difference to those who choose to see, and in doing so, this person’s seemingly small gesture of sharing a story, made a big difference to me.  Funny how that works.

Maybe it’s not about making a big change in the world, maybe it’s about making big changes in a small way because even the smallest differences are big differences to someone.