Play a Role

When I first read The Alchemist, it absorbed me like no other book I was reading at the time. I poured over it relishing the phrasing, visualizing the setting, wondering where he came up with these ideas.

As we move through life, it's simpler to say we're powerless. Someone else made or makes the decisions. We only influence a small corner of our world.

Think about this. Especially in today's world with the capacity for instantaneous connections. I was responding to something a friend posted on Facebook recently. As is often the case, others had also responded. In the visible list was another friend's name. Someone I had no idea knew the person. So were were doubly connected in that instant.

Have you ever experienced someone telling you how some seemingly small act of your kindness had greatly affected them? It may not even have been directed toward them, may even have been something they heard about from someone else. Or a comment that was overheard. We make impressions on people we know ~ and people we do not know.

That puts Paulo Coelho's statement about "...every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world" into the perspective of today's world. We aren't simply what we say or do, we are what and how we are seen, heard and remembered.

A number of years ago, a friend and I were discussing death. I commented that I stay in the background so much that I doubted anyone outside my family and a couple of close friends would notice my passing. Her jaw dropped. She put her hand on my shoulder and said, My friend, you have no idea how many people you have touched in the time we've known each other. It was my turn to be stunned. Was my comment false humility? I don't think so. I really didn't see what she saw. However, I accepted what she said at face value ~ and that brief comment and touch rocked my view of myself in the world.

Coelho says that's true for all of us. We each help to create the history of the world in which we live. Together we are more powerful than we know. It's time to step up and accept our role.

Who has influenced your world? Who's world do you influence? How powerful do you feel? What do you think is your greatest strength? How does it help strengthen the world? What would change in your life if you believed Coelho's words?