While I was living and working in south Texas, I heard about the Legend of the Starfish. As the story goes, two priests, Father John and Monsignor Leo, were jogging along the beach on North Padre island when they came upon a stretch of sand where thousands of starfish had washed up, along with the tide. Father John slowed his jog, paused and began throwing some of the stranded creatures back into the Gulf of Mexico. Monsignor Leo also stopped, walked up to Father John and asked,”Father, why are you doing this? There are so many of these creatures stranded here on the beach, you cannot possibly save every one of them!” Father John replied, ” You are correct, Monsignor.” as he leaned down and tossed another starfish back into the sea, ,”but I sure made a difference for that one.”
We cannot save all the Starfish and we certainly cannot make a difference in the lives of everyone we meet; but we certainly can, like Father John, make a difference in the lives of at least one or two people at a time. As I wrote in my book, one such person who is making a difference is my niece, Debbie. She helped to create the Buffalo Burrito Project in Buffalo, New York. Her small group of volunteers helps to feed the homeless population in Buffalo, once a week, by creating small meal packets and clothing supplies that her group distributes to homeless people in downtown Buffalo. They cannot feed every homeless person and they certainly cannot feed them more than once a week, since all of her volunteers have other jobs and obligations. What they can do is make a difference for those homeless people, one meal at a time, one day at a time, one person at a time.
We can all make this same difference, one person at a time, one helpul act at a time. You do not have to save starfish, whales or the homeless, but you can be an instrument of change merely by making the decision to act. Most of us never make that choice and resemble Monsignor Leo, simply watching as others do all the heavy lifting. Worse, we sometimes turn our back on obvious needs, hoping that someone else will come around and solve the problem. Frequently, the size of the problem or the number of people who need help seems so great, that we say to ourselves, “How can one person possibly make even a tiny dent in the problem? How can I even begin to fix this injustice when I am only one person?”
I take communion to a nursing home once a month and usually interact with a group of around a dozen elderly residents. Having done this for around ten years, I am always amazed at how happy these folks are to see me. It never fails, every time I enter the facility, I am greeted by someone who thanks me for coming and states how important this visit is to them. I am only there once a month and my visit usually lasts less than half an hour; yet these people seem grateful out of all proportion to the time I am investing. It seems, I have uncovered my very own Starfish. It appears that my visits somehow brighten the lives of this tiny band of residents and for one brief period of time, they are once again connected to the church they can no longer attend on their own. I help them find their connection to that sea of community to which they once belonged and now fondly remember. Much like Father John, I return them to their own ocean of pleasant memories.
You, too, can help your individual Starfish. You can make a difference in the life of another human being. Reach out, help someone and discover your very own Starfish. I promise you, it will make a difference to them…. one Starfish at a time.