Make A Difference

It sounds so profound. It's found on inspirational posters in classrooms and businesses all over the country. "Make a difference." Short. Complete. Or, is it? I mean, that is just like the phrase "be an example." Everyone is an example by virtue of living amongst others......what kind of example is what they have to choose. Make a difference is similar. From the moment your squalling body came into this earth, and even before that in the view of your parents and family, you have made a difference. Because you live, you make a difference. A difference in how much water is used.:) How much air is breathed. How much trash is generated. You make a difference in how many words are spoken. In so many mundane and important ways, you make a difference. But making something different does not necessarily mean making it better.
You can live your life as a low-impact, go green kind of person. A tree hugger. You truly can save the whales. Maybe. Or at least try. You make a difference by how much litter you refuse to throw down.........and even moreso by how much litter you pick up.
But lest you think this is about going green and saving the earth, it's not. It's about what really makes a difference. Because that is what each of us has to ask ourselves if we want to succeed at really living and not just taking up space. Some people show up, they make a difference because everyone has to take care of them and meet their needs. But others, they live. They make a difference by contributing something wonderful. Like Mother Theresa. I mean, she didn't set out to be something special. She says she just began by helping the person closest to her and then the next, and the next and the next. And now, a humble woman who had very little is known all over the world as perhaps one of the greatest humanitarians who ever lived. Her focus wasn't on being great, it was on being helpful, on meeting other people's needs.
I know, I'm no Mother Theresa either. That is a tall order to fill. Or is it? She just did the good that she saw to do in a day. In a moment. She didn't seem to sit around agonizing about whether she was making enough of an impact or crunching numbers to see how she could do more. I think that we have become so goal oriented that we fail to see what is right there in front of us. We fail to do the things today that make a difference because we are so busy worrying about where we will be or what we will be doing in five years. Or next year.
The thing is this........you only get today. I know it's morbid. I know it seems unkind. But you can't for sure say what will be in five years. Or tomorrow. Whether you will still be able to walk. Or see. Or even be alive. Or whether your loved ones will be. You don't know if you'll have more money. Or less. You don't know what the state of the world will be. The whole world is full of unknowns.
The way you make a difference is to start right now. Doing what you do. Make a moment better for someone. Smile. Clean up their yard. Paint their house. Build them a house. Habitat for Humanity is done one house at at time for a reason. Bend down and pick up the trash you didn't drop. Hang up the towel you didn't throw on the floor. Encourage genuinely. Make a meal and give it away. Buy milk for someone. Leave a funny card. Write an email. Wash the car. Bathe the baby. Bathe the dog. Clean up the dog doo. See what could be done and make it a point to do it. That makes a difference. But only if you do it with a tender, loving heart. A heart that knows that doing each thing gave you more than you can ever give to the other person.
If you really want to make a difference, start right where you are with who you are. Use your gifts, your skills and do something for those around you. Strangely, if we were to all start working like this, living like this, we would all have our needs met and we would all be fulfilled. Wouldn't that make a difference? It sure would to me.
blessings,
rhonda