Power of One

Today I came across an interesting story of a jaguar and a hummingbird. According to a legend, there was one day a big fire in the forest. All the animals started fleeing in terror in all directions. One jaguar saw a hummingbird passing over his head again and again, to and fro. He couldn’t control himself and asked the little bird,
“What are you doing?”

“I am going to the lake to drink water with my beak and throw it on the fire to extinguish it,” he answered.

The jaguar laughed, “Are you crazy?
Do you really think that you can put out that big fire on your own with your very small beak?”

“No, I know I can’t. But the forest is my home. It feeds and shelters me and my family. I help the forest grow by pollinating its flowers. I am one of its parts and the forest is a part of me. I know I can’t put out the fire, but I must do my part,” said the hummingbird and continued his work.

So let’s not wait for miracles to happen and continue to do our part.

This reminds me of a similar story of an innocent boy. A big storm had passed and the vast beach was littered with starfish. But a boy was picking up a starfish and throwing into the sea. An old man asked him,
“Son, what are you doing here?”

The boy coolly replied, “I’m throwing starfish back into the ocean, otherwise they will die.”

The man was not convinced and he asked, “But there are thousands of starfish on this beach. What difference will you make by doing this one by one?”

The boy smiled, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as possible into the ocean and said, “It made a difference to that one.”

We may have thousands of problems, challenges and obstructions everywhere, but let’s not forget what little we can do for ourselves or for the society we live in. We may not be able to change the entire nation or world, but we can certainly do what is in our hand and within our reach. That’s the power of one.

–Kaushal Kishore

images: pinterest