Every Little Makes A Difference

 The 17th century French polymath, Blaise Pascal, once wrote, "The whole sea changes when a stone is thrown into it."

The mind may boggle at that thought - how could something as enormous as the sea, which covers more than 70% of the blue-green planet we live on, be affected by a single stone? And that may be true. But, that is a single stone. The problem is, an awful lot of us are pouring and throwing far more damaging things than a single stone into our world's seas. I'm sure many of us will have seen or read  distressing news of beaches strewn with plastic, animals tortured by plastic they have become entangled with, birds with their feathers caked with oil, whole coral reefs dying, the entire marine ecosystem being damaged by our carelessness, or worse, wilful vandalism.

So we have a duty of care towards our oceans, not to add a single thing to them, that could harm them, and to try to clean up the immense damage that has already been done.

But back in the 17th century, our seas were still relatively unpolluted. I think the point Pascal was trying to make is that each one of us can make a difference, through our smallest actions. Each time we do something kind or good, or helpful, the ripples spread out into the wider community. Conversely, each time, we do something unkind, bad, or malicious, the same thing applies.

When I was a teenager, I came across the following quote:

"There is a large grey rock:

One thousand miles long,

One thousand miles wide,

One thousand miles high.

Once every thousand years,

A bird comes and sharpens its beak on the rock.

And when the rock has crumbled away,

Only one moment of eternity

will have passed."

Which puts our little lives into a very large, very long perspective. But my point is, even a little bird, coming along once every thousand years, can make an enormous rock crumble into nothing. We live in the world and our every action has an impact on the world around us and on other living beings.

May we strive to have a positive impact on our world - knowing that every little makes a difference.