Making a difference.

I never knew that life itself can be so fragile. One day you’re alive, the next moment you may pass on. I once read this absolutely great book authored by Madame Leslie Pearse. One out of the many quotes caught my eyes, and since then, has sticked as one of my favourite quote – Never Look Back Into Your Life. I never really understood what it had meant the first time it caught my eye; but I did gradually.

Growing up in a loving family made my life a whole lot easier. Even though I’ve lost my dear mother at the tender age of one, I’ve grown up in an environment absolutely surrounded by love – my goofy mischievous yet disciplined father, 3 huge protective oafs as my brothers, an absolutely loving yet funny step-mommy, my step-sister who’s the only person who’s able to make me laugh despite all my sadness, my ‘young-at-heart’ sister-in-law, and believe it or not, my precious little nieces.

I was never contented though. There was so many things that I’ve wanted to achieve in my life. I wanted to be a successful lawyer in time to come – graduate with honour, and make my loved ones proud. I want to be able to travel to every part in the world and to my dream place – Capri Island; I want to someday be able to try out bungee jumping, eat different kinds of exotic food from various places of the world and make my own memories everywhere I go! Of course, being a typical little lady myself, I never had any qualms about getting married someday and set up my own happy family!

Then I realized, just how many stupid times a day have I used the word ‘I’. It was always ‘Me’, ‘I’, ‘We’ and ‘Us’. It was never ‘You’, ‘Them’, ‘He’, ‘She’, ‘Him’, or ‘They’. How many poor banished children suffer from cold and hunger? How many wives are widowed and childrens orphaned? How many little ‘uns been left maimed, crippled, begging on the streets to fight for their living? Everyday, we perceived of little children been massacred, exposed to perversion, abused and all we could do is say “Oh, poor thing. How can anyone do this to them? Why isn’t anyone helping these poor kids or poor women?”

It dawned on me that I can make a DIFFERENCE in the lives of these people! I can never possibly help all of them, but I can start with the minority. I don’t have to go all out against anyone to fight for the rights of these peoples. All I have to do is give up my seat in the bus to elderly or pregnated women, drop some coins in the hats of the street performers or little suffering kids, do not avert their eyes; instead, give them a warm smile. Every now and then, pay a visit to some homes for the vulnerable. It’s the very least I could do. I never want to someday look back into my life and regret while saying ‘I should have done that’.

So, instead of sitting around and feeling sorry for these people, you can lend a helping hand and make a difference in their lives. What are a few coins to the hundreds we carry in our pockets? What are a few minutes of standing up compared to the elderly standing on their fragile weakened bones and pregnated women carrying double the weight? What are spending a couple of hours in homes compared to the amount of hours we spent being a couch potato at home watching the plight of these people? If we can smile to the people we know, why can’t we smile to these poor kids on the sidewalk?

Let’s all work together and make a difference. May it be a minor difference, or a major difference, we DO make a difference. Have faith, and be a little kinder. After all, Every decision we do in life, we do it by faith. Faith, hope and love keeps the world a better place to live in.

And so, in the words of the late Mother Theresa:-

Happiness isn’t until you share it with those who really need it