Making A Difference

It was on January 8^th of 2007 that I wrote my very first Monday Message. I wrote 52 Monday Messages that year but didn’t write any in 2008. I wrote 52 more in 2009 but skipped 2010. I wrote 52 more in 2011 but skipped 2012. However, in 2013 I began writing approximately 50 Monday Messages every year until today, at which point… I have reached a mile stone… Monday Message #400.

Every Monday Message has to be unique. Yet that is only one of the many difficult things it takes to create an inspirational weekly message. It takes time to carve out the theme, to edit it so that it can be less than one page of writing, to come up with an appropriate photo, and to then finish it off with a quote that will bring the whole story together, while highlighting the theme of it.

It takes hours of time and torrents of emotional energy to create just one Monday Message. So sometimes I get tired and frustrated and think about quitting. I start thinking that nobody reads these stupid stories anyway, so why should I waste my time. I’m never going to make a difference in this world, so perhaps I should quit trying. But then something happens that reminds me that I am not alone in my efforts. There are plenty of other people out there who are working hard and trying hard to make a difference in this world. My Monday Message last week proved it.

Last week I wrote a story about my 93-year-old friend, Pao Chi Chen. She is about to have her 94^th birthday, but there will be no party because she is very lonely having outlived most of her friends and family. I asked people to write her a simple birthday card, hoping that a few extra birthday wishes might brighten her day.

As of today, I have received dozens of birthday cards that I plan to deliver to her on her birthday! I was shocked by the swift and solid response, but I should not have been amazed that there are so many good people out there willing to do something nice for a stranger. Even though the news reports bombard us daily with stories of murder, rape, and hate crimes, in the background there are plenty of people reaching out to help a stranger in need. To those people I say, “Thank you for giving help to a stranger and inspiration to me!”

Expose me to hate so it be not a stranger; 

yet fill my cup with love to turn strangers into friends.

~ Og Mandino