Lovely Heart.....can change the World

There was a boy living near the park. Every Sunday morning, he take a light jog around a park.  There’s a lake located in one corner of the park.  Each time he jog by this lake, he see the same elderly woman sitting at the water’s edge with a small metal cage sitting beside her.

Then one Sunday his curiosity got the best of me, so he stopped jogging and walked over to her.  As he got closer, he realized that the metal cage was in fact a small trap.  There were three turtles, unharmed, slowly walking around the base of the trap.  She had a fourth turtle in her lap that she was carefully scrubbing with a spongy brush.

Boy talked to the lady saying  “I see you here every Sunday morning.  If you don’t mind my nosiness, I’d love to know what you’re doing with these turtles”.

She smiled.  “I’m cleaning off their shells,” she replied.  “Anything on a turtle’s shell, like algae or scum, reduces the turtle’s ability to absorb heat and prevent its ability to swim. It can also damage and weaken the shell over time.”

The boy wonder and appreciated the women. She spend a couple of hours each Sunday morning, relaxing by this lake and helping out little turtles. It’s her own strange way of making a difference.

“But don’t most freshwater turtles live their whole lives with algae and scum hanging from their shells?” he asked.

“Yep, sadly, they do,” she replied.

He scratched hihs head. “Well then, don’t you think your time could be better spent?  I mean, I think your efforts are kind and all, but there are fresh water turtles living in lakes all around the world.  And 99% of these turtles don’t have kind people like you to help them clean off their shells.  So, no offense… but how exactly are your localized efforts here truly making a difference?  he said”

The woman giggled aloud.  She then looked down at the turtle in her lap, scrubbed off the last piece of algae from its shell, and said, “Sweetie, if this little guy could talk, he’d tell you I just made all the difference in the world.”

The moral:  You can change the world – maybe not all at once, but one person, one animal, and one good deed at a time.  Wake up every morning and pretend like what you do makes a difference.  It does.