Legend of the Starfish
Making a Difference
As I walked down the beach littered with starfish, I watched people gathering them up to take them home and preserve them. Farther down, I noticed a child stop, bend, and then fling a starfish back into the sea. I paused and watched. Then I said, "You can't possibly make a difference.” As the child flung another one into the sea, she replied, “I made a difference for that one.” Stop, bend, fling. “And that one.” I smiled and turned back the way I had come. As I walked, I stopped, I bent, and I flung a starfish back into the sea. “And this one,” I whispered as I continued to stop, bend and fling.
Adapted by Sarah Tobias from The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley. Published by Houghton Mifflin in The Unexpected Universe.1
The story of the Star Thrower is one that I have known for a very long time. It resonated with me when I first read a version of it and I hold it close to me to this day. It reminds me that I may not have control of most things that I hear on the news or even just things that happen in my community, but I do have control over how I live my life and the actions that I take.
In the spring you will likely find me bent over scooping up worms that lost their way after a big rain storm, or you may see me at the grocery store where I will smile and say hello even if we have never met.
I have learned that taking care of myself, my physical and emotional well-being is so important to being able to do good things in the world. For me that means things like turning off notifications on my social media, not looking at social media and if I do, being very deliberate about what I look at. It means doing things that bring me joy. A big one for me has been practicing Laughter Yoga. Starting my morning with a Laughter Yoga group2 has helped me to stay more regulated and to let go of things that really don’t matter or that I have no real control over.
I believe in taking action. Action that I have control over. If you are worried about the state of our country, or the state of your mental health because things feel so out of control.
Be a Starfish Thrower
Here are a few simple things you can do to make a difference in the world:
To turn the page on Book Banning and to protect your Right to Read:3
Buy a Banned Book or any book from a local bookstore or from Bookshop.org4
Read the book you bought and share about it on your social media.
Donate the book you bought to a Little Free Library or a neighbor.
Go to your local library and check out a book.
Read the book you borrowed and tell people about it on your social media.
To Protect our language and support those being oppressed by government dictates:
Use the words that are banned from government documents.
Support organizations that have lost funding. (NASA, National Parks, CDC, Education).
You could buy the t-shirt I created in response to the banned words.5
Donate to a local organization that is being impacted by government cuts.
Support Your Local Economy
Shop at small businesses. Did you realize that by getting a massage, having coffee at a local coffee shop, and going to a paint and pour party is supporting a small business? Win-Win.
Donate to local organizations. You know what you find important in your community, help them thrive.
Buy art from a local artist.
Share what your are doing to support your community on your social media.
While you don’t need a reward from me for doing good stuff, I will send a starfish sticker to the first nine people who:
do something from this list and share about it in the comments and share this post on social media.
Or, do something not on this list, share what it is in the comments and on social media.
Imagine how many starfish we can save when we are do a little something good.
https://www.sarahatobias.com/product-page/starfish-unisex-classic-tee
I’ve put the starfish on a t-shirt. Remind yourself that each little thing you do to help someone or something in the world is making a difference.
https://www.laughteryoga.org/zoom-laughter-club/
https://bookstr.com/article/5-authors-on-censorship-reasons-why-their-books-were-targeted/
https://bookshop.org/shop/peacefulheart
https://www.sarahatobias.com/product-page/government-censorship-of-free-speech-unisex-classic-tee
Thank you, Sarah Tobias, for retelling the story And for your list of stop, bend, toss. Just this morning, for the first time in a very, very, long time, I felt a kind of caring for my mother, long passed. It was the result of remembering her enthusiasm for Loren Eiseley, her great respect for him and a book she read that he wrote. Thank you for your mentioning Loren Eiseley, which made this connection possible. We share a path, too. You might agree if you take a look at my Substack, NOTICINGS. And permit me to share here with you, something I've been listening to again and again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuQ4Hi7YdgU