Making a Difference

I wrote this in May, 2007. I still like it, so I'm copying it.
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I just read over my blogs. Most of them I still like. I still especially like the " I Don’t Get It" entry. I guess you could say that’s my "purpose" in life.

I got to thinking about one phrase I used. I said I might not even make the slightest little difference. Perhaps on a global scale that’s true. But at this moment, as I sit on my porch, there is non-stop action at my pond. A pair of cardinals, a pair of catbirds, a pair of mockingbirds, a grackle, my resident sparrows, 3 mourning doves, and several robins. Not to mention the rabbits and the squirrels. Soon the butterflies and other insects will arive.

They all have fresh water to drink. There is mud a-plenty for the robins to line their nests with-and the coconut husks from my planter! Dried grasses for the sparrows and finches. Trees and shrubs for shelter and nesting. Later in the season there will be berries and seeds, and nectar, and leaves for caterpillars to munch.

This might seem like a small thing. But, 6 years ago, all that was here was grass. And cement. It was a biological waste of space, offering nothing. Not even starlings bothered to visit the yard. Now, with a little care and a lot of work, my yard provides living things of all sorts with the basics of life- and a few little luxuries as well. Now it sustains and comforts dozens of creatures.
I remember a story I read somewhere. A boy was travelling down a rainy road with his grandfather. Every few feet he made his grandfather stop the car. The boy’d get out of the car, and remove a toad from the middle of the road, carefully placing it in the brush along the sides. After the umpteenth time, the grandfather was getting irritated. "Son, you can’t possibly make a difference! There are so many of them!" The boy stopped, and replied -as he picked up yet another toad- "Well, it makes a difference to this one!".

I guess that’s how we must look at things. Every living thing has a desire to live. And God made each and every one of them. It matters to each bird that they have fresh water to drink and bathe in. It matters to each dove that they have cool mulch to sun themselves in. It matters to each squirrel that they can find warm nesting material for their babies. And it matters to each creature that they have food.

So… I guess I did make a difference. I have provided food, water, shelter, nesting materials and places for creatures….in a place where only a few years ago there was none. I have made a difference for that robin who is pouncing on worms in my garden bed where before was just cement. I have made a difference for that silly dove who is trying to decide how to get in the water for a bath, where before was just grass.

So here I sit, glancing at "Frankie" - my St. Francis of Assisi statue in front of my pond- Yes. I have made a difference. A mighty difference, in the eyes of those who are affected.