The Starfish

One day an old man was walking along the beach. It was low tide, and the sand was littered with thousands of stranded starfish that the water had carried in and then left behind. He began walking very carefully so as not to step on any of the beautiful creatures. Since the animals still seemed to be alive, he considered picking some of them up and putting them back in the water, where they could resume their lives. The old man knew the starfish would die if left on the beach's dry sand but he reasoned that he could not possibly help them all, so he chose to do nothing and continued walking.

Soon afterward, he came upon a small girl on the beach who was frantically throwing one starfish after another back into the sea. The old man stopped and asked the girl, "What are you doing?"

"I'm saving the starfish," the girl replied.

"Why waste your time?... There are so many you can't save them all so what does is matter?" argued the man.

Without hesitation, the little girl picked up another starfish and tossed the starfish back into the water... "It matters to this one," the little girl explained.

The lesson is that if you make a positive difference in just one life, it was worth it.