Making a Difference

"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make."  Jane Goodall

It is so true that what we do, and even the way we show up does make a difference.  We are either a blessing on a situation, or a bane.  We either bring joy to a situation, or we bring diminishment.  I don't think it is possible to have a neutral effect.  We are either being a positive influence or a negative one.  Perhaps Jane Goodall is talking about the type of work we do; I do not know the context of this quote, but it is not limited by our work.  It is how we are in relationships, in transactions, in communities, in families.  When I was a teenager, I sometimes helped pump gas for customers at my father's gas station, and later I worked as a waitress to pay my way through college.  In those situations of providing service to others, I was made aware of how important it is to treat with respect those people who do the simplest of tasks for us:  the checker at the grocery store, the bank clerk, the person who serves the latte'.   We can all have bad days, but - overall - a lot can be determined about the character of a person by how he/she treats those who provide them service..