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Do you realize that we have within each of us the capacity to make a difference? Indeed, we always, always have this never ending ability, even if it is in the smallest of ways. Ghandi put it like this:

“Whenever you are in doubt—or when the self becomes too much for you—apply the following test: recall the face of the poorest and weakest person whom you may have seen. Ask yourself if the step you contemplate taking is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words will it lead to truth for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts—and yourself—melting away.”

Mother Teresa offered her own wisdom:

“May those of us fortunate enough to be born with faces, use them like glowing billboards to show love to others. Use our eyes to see what needs to be done and where we can help. Use our mouths to speak the words—those just right words—that others need so badly to hear. Make our whole faces shining lights of love and friendship for all.

“May those of us who were born with more splendors than we are even aware, take the time to see what we have …. to look at all the things—the big and the very smallest—and then appreciate the incredible abundance. Then say a prayer of thanksgiving.

“May those of us who were given the glorious gift of strong arms and legs, show us how to use them. We know these wondrous tools were not designed to be draped over chairs. Let us get up, get out, and get on with the work of helping others.

“And may those of us who were born with minds able to reason, to sympathize, to understand and to set a plan into action, give us the knowingness, the fortitude and the patience to accept that, yes, life does have buckets and oceans overflowing with misery, but that we can separate the oceans into drops—and then let us with all haste start.”

One day one of the sisters came to Mother Theresa totally beside herself with the overwhelming task of caring for the tens of thousands of desperate Indian people. She cried, “Oh, Mother, there is so much to do. I feel like what I do is nothing more than a drop in the ocean.”

Mother Theresa turned to her and gently said, “Remember, child, that every ocean began with only one drop.”

Yes, we each—drop by drop—can in some small way make a difference. In this lifetime, wherever you are, whatever your circumstances may be, you can still bloom in the place where you are planted. 

There you can bloom for yourself and for others. And then know with assurance that if it is time to re-pot yourself, you can always do that, too. Simply begin now.