The Starfish Thrower
There was a famous writer who used to spend a lot of time in an isolated retreat by the sea. He would often go for a walk along the beach and experience that kind of peace and awareness of natures beauty.
One day while walking along the beach, he spottted somebody dancing in the distance. As he got closer to this figure, he realised that it was a boy in his teens, and he wasn't dancing, he was bending down, picking something up and throwing it gently into the sea.
As he got even closer he noted that the boy was picking up starfish and throwing them into the sea. All along the beach, for as far as the eye could see, there were starfish thrown up onto the beach.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm throwing starfish back into the sea" replied the young man. "If they don't get back into the sea before the sun gets too hot, they will die."
"There must be thousands of them; you can't possibly make a difference" said the writer.
Smiling, thew young man bent down and picking up another starfish, threw it gently into the sea. Turning to the writer he said "Made a difference to that one".
The writer thought the boy foolish as he walked away, but that night he couldn't get the boys words out of his mind. The following day he went down to the beach and found the boy, together they spent the morning throwing starfish back into the sea.
You can and you do make a difference, what difference do you want to make?
Based on a story by Loren Eiseley