A note from Karen: I read this story in Chicken Soup for the Soul. Further research indicated that a version of this story originally appeared in The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley. It is a wonderful story about how each of us can make a difference.
A man was walking down a deserted beach at sunset. As he walked along, he began to see a woman in the distance. As he grew nearer, he noticed that the woman kept leaning down, picking something up, and throwing it out into the water. Time and again she kept hurling things into the ocean.
As the man approached even closer, he noticed that the woman was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach, and, one at a time, she was throwing them into the water.
The man was puzzled. He approached the woman and said, “Good evening, friend. I was wondering what you are doing.”
“I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it’s low tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don’t throw them back into the ocean they’ll die.”
“I understand,” the man replied, “but there must be thousands of starfish on this beach. You can’t possibly get to all of them. There are simply too many, and don’t you realize it is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down the coast? Can’t you see that you can’t possibly make a difference?”
The woman smiled, bent down, and picked up yet another starfish, and as she threw it back into the sea, she replied, “Made a difference to that one!”
Friends, this is Karen. Let us remember that each of us has the power to make a difference one person at a time.
Post updated 2023
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