When I was about eight years old I was ran over by a car – actually having a large ‘N’ of tire tread scabs on my back from my lower left to my upper right shoulder. I only had some bruises as a result. This happened in the sixties when cars were large and heavy.

In my rather short career as a sailor I had bets placed on my life in South Chicago as to whether I would make it back to the boat alive. Once there was a bet on whether I would survive one eight hour night on a dock in Ohio without being stabbed and robbed while I worked.

I survived not drowning on the Edmund Fitzgerald because I made a rash decision not to go winter sailing because a friend was not going. I once had a disagreement with some gang members and had a pistol stuck in my face a year or so later. I swore I could have walked down the barrel of the pistol with my arms outspread and not touched either side of the barrel.

There were the inevitable Friday or Saturday nights out on the town, when some redneck did not like long hair, wild ways, clothes, or something else about me…and wanted to fight me.

Those are just highlights of some almost times when my earthly existence could have ended. Because of my good fortune I started to believe I was here for something special. I was going to accomplish something very big. I had no idea what it was, but I knew it was going to happen.

If that big event ever happened, I missed it…. As far as I know that big thing never happened. Life went on, and of course both myself and the world slowly changed. Whatever my big moment was I either never showed up, or it came and went, and I never noticed.

Something did happen, and it took a long time before I was aware of it happening, but happen it did. One way or another circumstances created situations where I did something good for someone. It was never any big event that took place. Being at the right place at the right time with a willingness to listen, or simply being there – giving someone a chance to talk and change their mind. Things as simple lending or giving someone a few dollars when they were broke. Sharing a different perspective on what looked like a desperate situation. I found myself adding my (tongue in cheek here) sage advice when an important decision was made.

I imagine about now you are thinking this is a pretty self centered focused post on me. I would if I were reading it for the first time. What it is really about is what I never noticed during those years. What I never noticed were those people who appeared in my life and gave me a nudge changing my life course ever so slightly.

Without allowing people help me, I would probably still be angry at the world, standing on wayside, waiting for the world to conform to me. I would be living my life trying to overcome one problem at a time. I would ponder where the wonder was to my life, and what purpose I had in being here.

I have learned over the years, is that changing the world rarely happens with a bold sweep of the painters brush on the canvas of the world. Rather changing the world happens by changing the hues in the life of one or maybe a few people at a time. Over a lifetime I think we will discover that all those little things that seemed so innocent have in fact changed the world in ways we can never imagine.

I bet you are one of those people? Maybe you never entered my life and said or did something that changed the course of my life forever, but I bet you entered someone’s life? Because I know you are one of these people, I want you to take some time today and acknowledge yourself for the good you have done. Also while you are reminding yourself of the good you have done, think about the changes in the world you still have to make.