Day 1209- Starfish

A couple of days ago I posted this screenshot. Helping Parents Heal online group which started in May of 2017 is growing like wildfire. We crossed 3,000 members just after the conference in April. It’s October and we just crossed 4,000 members.

Several people commented that this was a sad milestone. I have to disagree. There are millions of parents out there whose children have crossed before them. What I see when I look at this number is there are 4,000 of them who have our help via this amazing group on Facebook. There are 4,000 people who have access to life-affirming and healing information and support. While the need can be overwhelming, we need to help who we can help. We can’t reach everyone but each and every one we reach makes a huge difference, to that one.

I was reminded of this story which is one of my all time favorites. After I posted it in Helping Parents Heal, someone in my Spirituality and Bereavement class referred to it, just a day later.

Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work. Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions.

Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching.  As the boy walked, he paused every so often and as he grew closer, the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea.  The boy came closer still and the man called out, “Good morning!  May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young boy paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves,” the youth replied. “When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.”

The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”

The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!”