I’m sitting on my couch watching the first Lakers basketball game post passing of Kobe Bryant. It reminds me of the impact one individual can have on so many lives. That said, most of us do not have a platform to touch that many lives.

As the old parable of the starfish goes, “It mattered to that one.”

A man walked along his favorite stretch of beach one morning. The night before a great many starfish had washed up upon the beach and were strewn for as far as the eye could see. The man saw a young boy ahead, picking up one starfish at a time. He tossed each into the sea, one by one.

The man approached the boy. “Son. That’s kind of you, but there must be thousands of starfish here on the beach. You can’t save them all. So it doesn’t matter.”

The boy turned to the man, starfish in hand. He tossed it into the sea. “It matters to this one.”

Never for a moment think you have not impacted the world in your own positive way. Even if you have touched one life. It matters to that one.

You matter.