Your life is your message to the world. Make sure it’s inspiring.
Anonymous
Making a difference in the world with simple actions is the best place to start utilizing what you’ve learned in your spiritual awakening but it’s easy to get lose focus on what is important along the way.
Today’s story is a way for you to remember how to focus on what matters in the actions you can take and your service.
Sometimes, when you are out to make a difference it is easy to get upset when the action you take doesn’t turn into the outcomes you had hoped for.
Have you ever been upset when you tried to help but it doesn’t work out? Are you hard on yourself? Do you know someone else who is hard on themselves?
Starfish is the story for you. It is about making a world of difference.
I am only one, but still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Edward Everett Hale
Starfish
A young family drives to Florida on vacation but they arrive late, just as a tropical storm is brewing. Their young son, Nate falls asleep early from travel exhaustion and his parents (Jim and Sarah) stay up late unpacking the car in the wind and rain.
In the morning, Jim and Sarah wake up late and discover 7-year-old Nate has eaten his cereal and left their rented vacation condo on his own. Worried they go outside to find him. . . but instead find dramatic storm damage. Worry turns to panick because Nate was nowhere to been seen and is out of earshot, as they have been calling for him.
After frantically searching the area and calling for Nate, a crowd has started to form and help.
A little old lady who’s out for her morning walk passes by all the commotion on her way to walk the beach anyway. She crosses the main road and upon entering the beach sees there are thousands of starfish washed up from the storm.
Then halfway through her walk she sees a figure in the misty distance bending and rising, bending and rising. When she gets closer she sees it is a small boy throwing starfish into the water.
Arriving close by she asks him. “What are you doing young man?”
“I’m saving starfish.” He replies.
“Hmmm… I see. . . But you surely can’t make a difference with the tens of thousands of starfish there are here young man. . .”
He bends down and throws another starfish into the water. “I made all the difference in the world to that one.” He says to her.
Her face crinkles up, and she says, “What do you say if I help you? Will you turn around and head back home so we can let your parents know you’re ok? They are awake and worried about you.”
Nates face lights up with a smile. Elated to have help he agrees and together they work their way back down the beach towards home.
You will have to make up for the smallness of your size by your courage and selfless devotion to duty, for it is not life that matters, but the courage, fortitude and determination you bring to it
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
I love this story because it reminds me of the importance of being of service and balances it with the humility to be responsible for what you can be responsible for and nothing more. Furthermore, this story demonstrates that serving together is an even greater joy.
more aligned with the ways that inspire us to live.
Service is one of the four primary factors in happiness and spiritual awakening. However, it is important to remember to separate serving from outcomes. The outcomes are not up to you or me and it is not your job to “save everyone”.
It is your job to live a spirit-first life. By doing so, you are rewarded with pleasure, satisfaction, and fulfillment. Plus, you demonstrate how to live spirit-first which often inspires others to find their way into these same experiences. Again, taking consistent actions without attachment to the outcome is key to the joy of spiritual awakening.
It’s the curiosity that drives me. It’s making a difference in the world that prevents me from ever giving up.
Deborah Meier
So, whether you are helping feed starving children in Rowanda, building Schools for a brighter future in Nepal, or picking up trash around your own neighborhood. It is not about the outcome of who lives, how many children learn, or how clean the neighborhood gets.
What it is about is demonstrating spirit-first living service. Allowing who you are being to touch and inspire others and allowing others to join you when they choose to.
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Gandhi
These are the characteristics of living inside the laws of Universal love. The principle of balance. As Gandhi said “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
This does not say produce the outcome you wish to have in the world.
For example, if there is too much trash and litter where you live, Being the change you wish to see could be going out and picking up, bagging and throwing away trash once a day or a week for 20 minutes around your area. This may not “solve the problem” but it contributes to others.
Simple acts like this can change the attitudes of people around you. Maybe not everyone and not all at once, but it is the little things we do overtime without seeking recognition that confounds and inspires people.
It’s not about what I SEE for our future, or humanity; It’s about what I DO for our future and humanity.
Steve Maraboli
I started weeding my neighbor flowers recently. Later to found out that she’s been having health problems and had surgery on both knees and can’t keep them up any more. The area I successfully weeded is just now starting to grow again.
She came over last week to express her gratitude. I didn’t know she had seen me. I was in the narrow space in between our houses in the shade. Her window blinds are always drawn shut.
The Fun Side bonus: I mentioned that I’d like to learn more about flowers as I had not learned how to grow them yet. She offered to teach me this spring. I’m elated.
The best way to make a difference in the world is to start by making a difference in your own life.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
There are no shortage or opportunities in the world and in your very own neighborhood. Here are a few examples that have inspired me.
- A young kid in Detroit hears adults complaining about how bad their streets are from all the ice making the potholes worse. His young man fills up a trashcan with dirt from his backyard and drags in down the street filling in the potholes that are damaging people’s cars in his neighborhood. #heartofservice
- A privileged woman gets a prestigious work assignment near her family and friends but chooses to go to the poorest area of the world to make a difference. #MotherTheresa
- A man jumps into the freezing waters of a flooded street to pull trash and debri out of a a huge street drain so the waters can clear… he helps tens of thousands of commuters pass without incident or accident. #Youtube
There are lots of stories like this in the world. These are just a few example and yet they give you an idea of how many opportunities near and far from home you have.
If you believe you can make a difference, then you will make a difference.
Believe in yourself, your family, and your community and you will win.
Lindsay Fox
My final words of wisdom for you are: allow your spirit to guide you.
And if you are not sure how to hear spirit (versus ego) start by reading the interview with George Edward Benton III or 5 drug free solutions to PTSD, anxiety, and Depression to reduce your stress. Also, subscribe to be the first to know about new articles, to get behind the scenes content and free bonus reserved only for TAG members and players. .
I found when I was first getting started with allowing Spirit to guide my life the easiest way for me to find opportunities to service was by noticing the complaints I had about what other people were doing or not doing. Where I complained is where I took the actions I thought others should take… then I would become the change I wished to see in the world. I inspired myself a few times. #ProudMoments.
What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make
Jake Goodall
Sarah Kay Harrison is a life coach turned Spiritual blogger. Her 30+ year obsession with sustainable happiness and Abundance and her calling to help people, have led her around the globe. Her work has allowed her to help farmers in developing nations and at-risk youth in the US. As well as championship-winning sports teams and American executives. To learn more about Sarah the Stumbling Spiritual Student Sharing Stories go to www.MyGame2.com
