"No individual raindrop ever considers itself
responsible for the flood" (author unknown)
How often do we go through life not taking responsibility for our own actions because {well let’s face it} we’re only one person.
Imagine for a minute… someone saying,
“Yeah, I stole something from that shop without paying for it, but hey, it wasn’t my fault that they went broke”.
If everyone had that same attitude, just think about the outcome.
But the same can also be said about volunteering and helping others.
Often we may wonder if what we are doing to help really makes a difference.
We may question, how effective could one person actually be?
Well when we ponder the words of this quote, we see that a flood is made up of individual raindrops… lots of them!
That’s definitely something that residents of Chiangmai understand at the moment.
In light of the recent Chiangmai floods and seeing teams of rescue crews in action, my initial response as a foreigner {with limited Thai} was,
‘But what can I do to help?’
It took a couple of days but eventually I noticed some big wire baskets set up outside our grocery store collecting clothes for the flood victims and at another store, a clear box was filling up with loose change donations.
My bag of clothes… my loose change… might not do that much by themselves, but if lots of people contributed even just the smallest amount, just imagine the difference that could be made.
And so I challenge us:
There’s always need surrounding us; there’s always something that we can give and always something small (even rain drop sized) that we can do to help.
My little contribution might not seem like much on its own but put together with yours… and theirs… and hers… and his… we suddenly have a flood!
I’m also blogging over at the ZOE Children’s Home site this week.
Click here to read about how our ZOE youth are getting out and about and helping others through the recent tragedy of the Chiangmai floods.
Got a comment on ‘JUST a DROP’? I’d love to hear what you have to say!
6 comments:
Love these thoughts, I often find myself becoming overwhelmed with the question of where to focus my attention when there is so much need! (Meke)
I know, right? Sometimes I'm so busy wondering what "big" thing I can do to help and then I realise there's "little" things I can do to help everywhere. It's understanding that these are important too. Thanks for your comment Meke.
This is something I am so passionate about Andie. Chris even wrote a song called 'One Drop'. Yes if we all started somewhere and did something then together we start to make a significant dent.
I love this African proverb:
“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you’ve never spent the night with a mosquito".
Meke - hello, something I once told a friend who was overwhelmed too was to choose something and do that. He decided to focus on fairtrade and is such a champion now influencing many. I think it starts with believing that our small contribution is worth something and then doing something about it.
That is often the hardest part.
Loving the posts Andie. Hope you are all well.
You're so right. Just one drop can make a difference when added to lots of other little drops. Thanks for the reminder to keep doing small things that can add up to bigger things :)
Hi Fi, Actually I remembering you saying that once before about Chris' song; I'd love to hear it one day. Great to hear from you. When do you go? Andie x
Thanks Narelle. Mainly I am needing to remind myself of this... LOL.
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