“Just as ripples spread out
When a single pebble is dropped into water,
The actions of individuals can have far-reaching effects.“
— Dalai Lama
In writing a book and living a life “It Takes a Village.” I recognized this village in the acknowledgement chapter at the end of my book – A Leap Year of Firsts. I also read these acknowledgements live on stage last Friday at my book launch party. In thanking my village for attending and for being part of the book and my life I singled out one person who threw a very pivotal pebble into my pond at 3:27 p.m. on March 20th, 2020,. This pebble followed me laying off my whole company for the first time in my life due to the pandemic. I had done this less than an hour prior at 2:30 p.m., as described in last week’s blog. This pebble came in the form of a phone call offering employment to my staff to become a call center for the state of New York at the height of the pandemic. We were needed to make COVID test appointment calls for the citizens of NY. It saved my employees job. We went from a non-essential awards business being shut to to an essential call center within an hour.
This person’s action of picking up the phone to present an opportunity, that saved jobs, our jobs, had a ripple effect on not only me, but many, many others. Her actions allowed me to pay it forward , to make more ripples in helping others in saving additional jobs in other struggling companies. If you ask her today I’m sure she will tell you I was just doing my job. She was trying to connect one of her customers in need (my company) with another that had a need (the call center that had just been awarded the contract to call for the state of New York)..
This person may never know the effects of her actions and the impact it had on many lives. I do and I am forever grateful. Sometimes during the course of a day we may think we are just “doing our jobs” as a worker, a parent, a sibling or a friend in innocently reaching out to someone with a simple act of kindness, a word of encouragement or an offer of an opportunity. These innocent and unconscious actions may be a pebble thrown into someone’s pond that creates many unseen and unknown ripples in may other lives. You are a part of someone’s village that can produce many ripples. You never may know, but know your actions do have impact on others!