\u201cEverybody can be great\u2026because anybody can serve\u2026You only need a heart full of grace…A soul generated by love.\u201d \u2013 Martin Luther King, Jr<\/p>\n
Speaking of those who serve, a few years ago I was able to attend a conference that highlighted ordinary people who had done some extraordinary things with their lives.\u00a0 There was a 16 year old girl who lived through seeing entire village massacred in Africa at the age of 10 years old, who now spreads a message of hope to survivors.\u00a0 Then there was a 40 year old woman in Africa that stood up to a terrible dictator and who brought thousands of African women together in Africa to help her take a stand against these tyrant leaders who were mistreating their people. \u00a0She and this group of women literally surrounded the courthouse and locked arms together and refused to let the men leave that building until they negotiated a peace agreement with one another.\u00a0 They risked their lives to do the right thing.\u00a0 Another story was the story of a young girl who wanted to help the people whose homes were destroyed in the hurricanes so at the age of 14 she started a charity which has gone on to raise tens of millions of dollars in the last three years.\u00a0 Here she is at the age of 17 with a charity that has involvement of over 4 million kids from all over the planet.\u00a0 Another was the story of a 15 year old girl that was sold into prostitution and slavery by a family member where she was abused for 5 years before she finally escaped.\u00a0 She is working with authorities to help them to track down the mafia group that headed up the prostitution ring that controlled her and because of that when this young lady came to the stage to talk to the audience they had to cover her face to keep her identity a secret from the bad people still after her.<\/p>\n
Hearing all of these stories at this conference all I could do is sit there and think \u201cWhat the heck have I done in my life compared to these amazing ladies???\u201d\u00a0 It made me really stop and ask myself if I shouldn\u2019t be doing more.\u00a0 Certainly if these women could do such courageous things in the world then I had no excuse for not doing everything I can do to contribute to the world as well.\u00a0 Seriously, no excuse or bad circumstance that any one of us have in our life comes anywhere close to the horrible circumstances that some of these women had going on in their lives when they stood tall to do amazing things.\u00a0 It really humbled me significantly and it put everything in perspective in my life.\u00a0 It helped me realize that every one of us has a duty to stand tall and be courageous and do something really impactful and good with our lives.<\/p>\n
We have a responsibility to do something to help others in this world.\u00a0 Maybe we won\u2019t be called on to put our lives in danger but there is something that every one of us can do, even if it\u2019s small.\u00a0 It may be as small as touching people around you with small acts of service, or it may be by getting involved in politics, or taking a stand on issues politically, or helping out with a charity. There are unlimited things we can find to do to help the world be a better place.\u00a0 We just have to decide to care enough to do those.<\/p>\n
Never underestimate the power of what one person can do.<\/p>\n
THE POWER OF ONE<\/span><\/p>\n One song can spark a moment One smile begins a friendship One vote can change a nation One step must start each journey One voice can speak with wisdom Have a great day everyone, and REMEMBER YOU<\/span><\/strong> HAVE THE POWER OF ONE!<\/p>\n ~Amy<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cEverybody can be great\u2026because anybody can serve\u2026You only need a heart full of grace…A soul generated by love.\u201d \u2013 Martin Luther King, Jr Speaking of those who serve, a few years ago I was able to attend a conference that highlighted ordinary people who had done some extraordinary things with their lives.\u00a0 There was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7981,953,1203,1151,2242,5864,7977,163,1083,7973,96,282,575,7972,219,4507,7968,591,364,4387,100,144,7976,7971,7979,1016,228,38,35,628,6150,7970,5322,77,7983,7975,1382,7967,7974,7978,127,576,2483,1416,145,2558,1397,7982,5687,7980,336,1414,7969,866],"class_list":["post-6132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-acts-of-service","tag-africa","tag-care","tag-charity","tag-conference","tag-contribute","tag-contribution","tag-courage","tag-courageous","tag-courthouse","tag-culture","tag-decide","tag-desire","tag-dictator","tag-dream","tag-duty","tag-extraordinary-things","tag-friendship","tag-goal","tag-grace","tag-greatness","tag-help","tag-homes","tag-hope-to-survivors","tag-humbled","tag-journey","tag-leader","tag-leadership","tag-love","tag-make-a-difference","tag-martin-luther-king-jr","tag-massacred","tag-millions","tag-moment","tag-nation","tag-negotiated","tag-one-person","tag-ordinary-people","tag-peace-agreement","tag-persepctve","tag-politics","tag-prayer","tag-risk","tag-serve","tag-service","tag-soul","tag-stand-tall","tag-take-a-stand-politically","tag-the-power-of-one","tag-touching-people","tag-truth","tag-tyrant","tag-village","tag-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6132"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6134,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6132\/revisions\/6134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOne flower can wake the dream
\nOne tree can start a forest
\nOne bird can herald spring<\/p>\n
\nOne handclasp lifts a soul
\nOne star can guide a ship at sea
\nOne word can frame the goal<\/p>\n
\nOne sunbeam lights a room
\nOne candle wipes out darkness
\nOne laugh will conquer gloom<\/p>\n
\nOne word must start each prayer
\nOne hope will raise our spirits
\nOne touch can show you care<\/p>\n
\nOne heart can know what\u2019s true
\nOne life can make the difference
\nYou see, it\u2019s up to you!!
\n(Author Unknown)<\/p>\n