Welcome to Week 9 of our school term. It has been another busy week with preschoolers joining us on Monday morning for the Spring play date and enjoying all sorts of great nature-based activities. Our Chess Team went to a competition and did an outstanding job, and our Year 3s also went on an excursion to the Old Adelaide Goal. Please remember that this Friday is a Pupil Free Day, and our teachers and SSOs will be working hard on planning curriculum and activities for their classes for the final term of the year.

I recently spent a few days in bed trying to recover from some bug. I am not a good patient at all and find that whole process unbearable. As I was lying there, I began reflecting on various things and got to wondering about the challenge of just getting through some of the little repetitive or uncomfortable things we do day-in and day-out. That may be the grind of everyday family life, the inconvenience of routine to provide security to our kids, or even the challenge of firm, consistent, loving discipline and directing of our children and teenagers. My mind was drawn to an email I revisited recently that I received from a student I taught many, many years ago. He reminded me of a story we read for class worship one day about the importance of continuing to do the little things that make a difference in our lives and the lives of others. The author is a man named Loren Eiseley, and it is from a book called, “The Star Thrower”.

“Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work. Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions.

Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching. As the boy walked, he paused every so often, and as he grew closer, the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea. The boy came closer still, and the man called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young boy paused, looked up, and replied, “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach, and they can’t return to the sea by themselves,” the youth replied. “When the sun gets high, they will die unless I throw them back into the water.”

The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”

The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!” (Eiseley, 1979)

This week, I want to encourage you to continue to do the thousands of things you do over and over to love, care for and lift up the kids in your care. There will be days when it seems just too much, or totally draining, but the difference it makes is life changing. I love how one author put it, “A single, ordinary person still can make a difference – and single, ordinary people are doing precisely that every day.” (Bohjalian)

Have a great week with our kids.

Mark B