It is such a little thing.

Some things are clearer and more obvious than others. 

I was asked just the other day there when I was clearing the weeds from along the side of the gutter outside my house if I was not just wasting my time when the whole street was looking the same?  My answer was simple, "I have made it a little bit better at my place and who knows maybe others will see it and do the same."

Of course, everybody else did not, they have more important things to do with their lives. They have jobs to go to and wages to earn. They have children to look after and meals to cook. And oh so many other things that are equally important.  But that does not mean that what I was doing was of any less value, we all come at life from different angles and perspectives. 

But here is a little thought. I was doing what I was doing because I had seen my father and my best friends father doing the very same thing for the very same reason I was. In a way, they have left a little mark and even though they are both now gone that little bit of my street is that bit better thanks to them. Who knows what little bits of difference might happen after we have all gone because of some of the lessons we taught in our actions?

I read a true story that stuck with me. The young man who wrote the story said something like this.

"Every Sunday morning I take a light jog around a park near my home.  There’s a lake located in one corner of the park.  Each time I jog by this lake, I see the same elderly woman sitting at the water’s edge with a small metal cage sitting beside her.

This past Sunday my curiosity got the best of me, so I stopped jogging and walked over to her.  As I got closer, I realised that the metal cage was, in fact, a small trap.  There were three turtles, unharmed, slowly walking around the base of the trap.  She had a fourth turtle in her lap that she was carefully scrubbing with a sponge and brush.

“Hello,” I said.  “I see you here every Sunday morning.  If you don’t mind my nosiness, I’d love to know what you’re doing with these turtles.”

She smiled.  “I’m cleaning off their shells,” she replied.  “Anything on a turtle’s shell, like algae or scum, reduces the turtle’s ability to absorb heat and impedes its ability to swim.  It can also corrode and weaken the shell over time.”

“Wow!  That’s really nice of you!” I exclaimed.

She went on: “I spend a couple of hours each Sunday morning, relaxing by this lake and helping these little guys out.  It’s my own strange way of making a difference.”

“But don’t most freshwater turtles live their whole lives with algae and scum hanging from their shells?” I asked.

“Yep, sadly, they do,” she replied.

I scratched my head.  “Well then, don’t you think your time could be better spent?  I mean, I think your efforts are kind and all, but there are freshwater turtles living in lakes all around the world.  And 99% of these turtles don’t have kind people like you to help them clean off their shells.  So, no offence… but how exactly are your localised efforts here truly making a difference?”

The woman giggled aloud.  She then looked down at the turtle in her lap, scrubbed off the last piece of algae from its shell, and said, “Young man, if this little turtle could talk, he’d tell you I just made all the difference in the world.”

it is the little things that put together make a big difference when we learn that the world will be a better place.  have a great day.