Making a difference

The events over the past couple of weeks have got me thinking. How easy it is to submerge ourselves in our frantic lives to the exclusion to all those around us. Or to fill our days with frivolities and superfluous activities that make us temporarily happy. While the acquisition of material goods fulfills our superficial desires, I think there's a part in all of us that wonders if we will make a difference before we depart this earth.

My apologies for the heavy and slightly morbid topic. This is a small reminder to myself to remember every now and then to peer beyond my self contained bubble of a life. I may be a tomboy in my past life (desperately trying to forget the gawky teenage years with a fringe teased into the shape of a bird's nest and hardened with so much hairspray, you couldn't crack it with a hammer) but I love shoes, handbags, make up and clothes like every other girl out there. I still tremble with excitement when I remember the day I first set eyes on my Birkin after 3 years of waiting. But nothing is more thrilling or fulfilling than knowing that you've made a difference in someone's life. It could be listening without being judgemental, offering a shoulder to cry on, mentoring a young graduate who's desperately looking for a job or perhaps encouraging someone who has been kicked to the ground so often, they think they're worthless.

As I look around the circle of friends and acquaintances around me, there are many who had been hurt by discrimination, painful circumstances and rejection. Myself included. It doesn't cost me anything other than my time and perhaps, a cup of coffee to listen and show that I care. In certain parts of the UK, class divisions can be so distinctive that one is categorized into an appropriate group within minutes depending on your accent, diction, education, background and clothes. But I think one mustn't forget that the color of your blood is no different to that of a princess or an aristocrat. Furthermore, cancer knows no boundaries. As a Chinese proverb goes, wealth does not pass three generations. Who knows the person who makes coffee and picks up the mail for everyone in the company may well be its General Manager one day? And sometimes one good deed may change a person's life.