Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today, I'm going to talk about the idea of being a blessing. There's an old story on this topic. One morning, a man was walking along the beach. They'd been a huge storm the night before, and he saw that thousands of starfish had been washed up onto the beach.

As he walked on, he saw a young boy picking up and gently throwing the starfish back into the ocean, one by one. Approaching the boy, he said, "Young man, what are you doing?" "Well, I'm throwing starfish back into the ocean. If I don't throw them back, they'll die," the boy replied. Well, the man laughed to himself and said, "You do realize that there's miles and miles and miles of beach and thousands of starfish. You can't make any difference." After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean.

And then he smiled at the man and said, "I made a difference to that one." Sometimes we forget the fact that we actually have a lot of power to make a difference to the world around us. Even if that difference affects only one person or creates good in some small way, it still matters. It matters not only how we affect the world around us, but as we act as a force for good, it affects our own mental state and everybody around us as well. When we go about our lives looking for how we can be a blessing to others in the world, we fill our own body and mind with states of goodwill, friendliness, compassion, appreciation, and love. We can be a blessing in so many small and big ways throughout the day.

By giving a word of encouragement to someone or a listening ear, by showing gratitude, compassion, patience. They can take the form of giving a compliment instead of a criticism, an inclusion, rather than a rejection. We can bless others by really listening to them deeply, making time for them, accepting them just the way they are, instead of telling them they should change. By honoring all life as well, we might become a blessing in the way of just simply putting the recycling out, reducing our consumption, throwing a dying starfish back into the ocean or some other little creature, you know, making it to be safe and happy. It's a general attitude of just helping rather than harming, generosity rather than greed, understanding and benevolence and openheartedness rather than defensiveness, judgment or ill will.

You can also be a blessing to yourself, treating yourself with compassion, acceptance, and kindness. There are so many opportunities to make a difference and to be a blessing to ourselves and others. As Jane Goodall once said, "What you do does make a difference. It's up to you each day to decide what kind of difference you'd like to make." So that's the invitation for practice today to be a blessing. Wishing you well with this.

And as always thank you for your practice and your presence here with us. Let's settle in now for today's meditation.