The smallest act of kindness is worth more than a thousand intentions | Roberta Attard

As I was taking a walk with my family at Gnejna Bay the other day, we came across a little boy who was exploring the beach with his mother. Stopping right in front of us, I couldn’t but overhear him saying “Look mama, what’s this?”, to which she answered, “A shell, chéri… and look, the crab is still in its house!” She then gently asked him to throw it back into the sea where it belonged, which he did, albeit somewhat grudgingly.

The whole scene reminded me of a story I once was told about an older man who was walking along a beach just like the one at Gnejna Bay at sunset. As he walked, he bumped into a child who was throwing something he had picked off the sand into the sea. Moving closer, he noticed that the boy was returning a starfish that had washed up onto the shore, back to the sea. He asked the child what he was doing at which he replied, “I’m throwing as many starfish as I can back into the sea as they will die if they are still on the shore when the sun rises tomorrow.”

Somewhat bemused, the man told the child “What a waste of time. The beach stretches for miles and who knows how many starfish there are strewn all over it. No matter how many you manage to throw back into the water, you can’t think that you will make one iota of difference.” Completely unaffected by the man’s comments, the boy knelt down, gently picked up another starfish and said, “Well, it does to this one.”

In a world that appears to consider personal gain and creature comforts as the Holy Grail of life, every single little act of kindness and compassion counts.

Doing anything, however small the act may seem, is always better than walking by and doing nothing. And no matter how overwhelmed we may feel by the sheer enormity of what needs to be done for all to live in peace and contentment, may we also recognise how everything that we need to make the change is already with us, even when we are convinced otherwise.

“Beautiful things grow out of shit,” observes Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, British musician, record producer, composer and visual artist. Describing himself as a “non-musician”, this rock, pop and electronica artist continues to say how “nobody ever believes that. Everyone thinks that Beethoven had his string quartets completely in his head—they somehow appeared there and formed in his head—and all he had to do was write them down and they would be manifest to the world. But what I think is so interesting and would really be a lesson that everybody should learn, is that things come out of nothing. Things evolve out of nothing. You know, the tiniest seed in the right situation turns into the most beautiful forest. And then the most promising seed in the wrong situation turns into nothing.”

The smallest seed, when dropped onto fertile soil and in the right conditions, can become the start of something big and we all have this seed clutched in the palm of our hand. What it takes is to make the first step – to water it and get it sprouting, to use it rather than keep it stowed away in the darkness.

As helping professionals, we are agents of advocacy and change, and although we may wonder at times what we can do as individuals, we underestimate the strength and power of what determined, passionate, compassionate and altruistic people can do when they put their minds to it and unite. As counsellors we are compelled to be drawn to the suffering of those we serve in our communities and beyond and assist in supporting our clients find and invest in more satisfying and fulfilling ways of living and relating. As the Faculty for Social Wellbeing we are committed to continue to be an insistent and persistent voice for the marginalised, the wronged, the downtrodden, the forgotten, the invisible, the sad, the ostracised, the hated, the unforgiven, the shunned. And the happiness that comes out of service to others is priceless, a true Holy Grail.

If you are still toying with the idea of joining us in one of our many exciting and challenging courses offered by our nine departments, what are you waiting for? Plant that seed. A Chinese proverb teaches us: “Do not anxiously expect what is not yet come; do not vainly regret what is already past.” Instead choose to commit to the only moment that is ours – the present – with courage, confidence and compassion. Then, your present will indeed become a gift.