The story of the starfish

One morning - it had been raining - a six-year-old girl walks out of the hotel room, across the lawn, to the beach. There had been a storm surge during the night. The ocean had raged and washed many starfish onto the beach, which are now there wriggling in the sand. The little girl stands on the kilometre-long beach and sees thousands, tens of thousands of starfish. She didn't know any starfish before. But out of her intuition, out of her heart, she grabs a starfish, picks it up, looks at it, reaches out with her little arm and throws it into the water. Without even knowing what exactly she is doing, following her intuition, she picks up the next starfish, looks at it - it moves a little - and throws it into the water. Takes the next starfish, looks at it and throws it into the water.

This girl, meanwhile, is spotted by a slightly older man who stands there at a distance and watches as this little girl throws one starfish after another back into the water. After watching this, this man goes to the little girl, stands next to her, looks down, puts his hand on her shoulder and says, "Oh, little girl, you are so stupid. You can't throw all the starfish back anyway".
The little girl looks at the man with her big eyes, turns away from him, grabs a starfish, looks at it, looks at the man and throws the starfish back and says, "That starfish - it can go on living now". It grabs the next starfish, looks at it, throws it in and says, "That starfish - it can live on too". At that moment, the elderly gentleman feels something. Tears spring to his eyes. At that moment he kneels down by the little girl's side and tells the girl, "Thank you for this lesson. Thank you for your wisdom". The old man takes a starfish, looks at it and throws the starfish into the sea. Now there are two people sitting there, each taking one starfish at a time and throwing it back to touch a life, to give a life, to save a life.

When are you going to get up, walk across the lawn, out to the sea and reach out to the washed up starfish to make a difference? It's not about how many you reach. It's about starting with the first one to make a difference. To stand up, to go out for yourself and all the starfish you can touch. That's what we do. That's what the crew of Bowspirit Kids do day in and day out. Not because we have to, but because we may. Because we may make a difference. In our lives and in the lives of many starfish out there who sometimes need a hand, sometimes an ear and sometimes just a word.

Think about how often you run past people who have glazed eyes, who have sad eyes, who have a stooped posture.
And it happens so quickly that we don't see anyone, that we walk past them. And that's why it's time we all train ourselves to see people.

Thank you for starting to make a difference!