I came across an interesting question:

"Are the hungry, homeless kids here in better shape than the hungry kids in 3rd world countries?"

I don't know the answer to that one, and i don't know, at my scale, if it matters. I learned a long time ago that what i think is right for me is not necessarily what is right for anyone else, heck it might even be not right for me but i keep pushing forward anyway, I do what I can. Only one is qualified to be the judge, no doubt He knows what is right, thank God that's not my job.

I vividly remember a tv commercial from way back when I was a kid, innocent looking girl alone in a herbal forest hawking shampoo, and she told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on... pretty soon the screen was full of happy people. It has stuck with me ever since, there is an important message in there I'm sure. Now, I'm not saying that everything would be right with the world if we all just had clean shiny hair, but it couldn't hurt.

That experience, and many others, have led me to what I call the 'Pond Theory'.

When a person does something good it is like throwing a pebble into a pond, and that ripple spreads, and the sunlight dappling through the leaves sparkles off that little wave, and it is beautiful, and others may see that beauty and realize they too have a pebble to toss, and it is good.

Together we can make the sea boil. I am convinced that each person has been blessed with a gift and an opportunity, no matter their circumstance or however seemingly small, and by working with one another, we can affect positive change. That's not an original idea, many others have seen their own vision of the same thing, call it thousand points of light, save the rain forests, eat locally, renewable energy, give at church, tutor a disadvantaged student, whatever.

At one particularly difficult time, when my life was in shambles and the world did not look much better, some people came to my door. I didn't buy what they were selling, but they did ask me a pertintent question, again a moment I will not forget. The answer was love.

Around the same time, i found one of those silly motivational posters, "Teamwork: We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own". Tattered and creased by many miles and years, it is still tacked on my wall today.

That is my pebble.