As a man walked a desolate beach one cold, gray morning he began to see another figure, far in the distance. Slowly the two approached each other, and he could make out a local native who kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out into the water. Time and again he hurled things into the ocean.

As the distance between them continued to narrow, the man could see that the native was picking up starfish that had been washed upon the beach and, one at a time, was throwing them back into the water.

Puzzled, the man approached the native and asked what he was doing. "I'm throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it's low tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don't throw them back into the sea, they'll die up here from lack of oxygen."

"But there must be thousands of starfish on this beach," the man replied. "You can't possibly get to all of them. There are just too many. And this same thing is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast. Can't you see that you can't possibly make a difference?"

The local native smiled, bent down and picked up another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea he replied, "Made a difference to that one!"

Each of us is but one person: limited, burdened with our own cares and responsibilities. We may feel there is so much to be done, and we have so little to give. We're usually short of everything, especially time and money. When we leave this shore, there will still be millions of starfish stranded on the beach. Maybe we can't change the whole world, but there isn't one of us who can't help change one person's whole world. One at a time. We DO make a difference.

Imagine a world where most people were healthy in mind, body, and spirit. How would we treat each other? Would there still be war? Would there be drug and alcohol abuse? Would we nurture our home, Mother Earth?

I think this is what Jesus meant when He said the Kingdom of Heaven is among us. He also said"seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and all else will be added to you." I think He was talking about being healthy in mind, body, and spirit.

The way to a better world is for each of us to put our own health as our #1 priority. Is this selfish? We are all like cells of a larger organism, humanity. If the cells aren't healthy, how can humanity be healthy?

The secret is for each of us to do this unilaterally. This is not an easy path. It is man and womankind's last great adventure. There will be no real change for the better in the world until most of us are healthy. Look at history. We keep making the same mistakes, generation after generation. Times change, but human nature remains the same.

Take some time apart to sit down and reflect. How is the health of your mind, body, and spirit? Abraham Maslow's characteristics of a self-actualized person are a good reference point for mental and emotional health. Check your physical health using the President's Council on Fitness guidelines. The four gospels of the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, provide some of the best spiritual teachings anywhere.

Make a leap of faith, start improving your health in small ways. See how your life and the lives of those around you improve when you start taking better care of yourself. Don't be satisfied comparing yourself to other people; see how you measure up to the ideal. Aim for the stars.

This is an interesting story of one Unitic's early life... a life of patience... that became a life of service...

October, 1928:
For more than three years, little Dick Penick, age 7, has been a patient in the Kiwanis Orthopedic Ward at Memorial Hospital, with his back, deformed by tuberculosis of the spine, encased in an iron frame. He has been restored to normal health by one of the most difficult and spectacular operations employed by surgical science.

By grafting a shin bone (removed from Dick's left leg), the surgeons bridged over the part of the backbone destroyed by tuberculosis, leaving 8" scars. After four months of convalesence following the operation, Dick had a brand new back, straight and firm, the knuckle gone, the crouch disappeared, the shambling gait no longer there, as he learned to walk again, upright and firm of step. Dick's mother, who steadfastly refused to become discouraged as she wended her way to the hospital daily, was crying with joy as she took Dick home to Hooversville.

Four and a half years ago, Dick fell from a kiddie car, weakened by having had flu, pneumonia, and chickenpox all in one year. While the injury from his back might have been trivial for a normal child, Dick's resistance was low and tuberculosis of the spine set in, destroying parts of the backbone and dooming him to a life as a hunchback. His five brothers and sisters helped him to get around in his heavy plaster casts.

But his condition worsened and he was admitted to the hospital in 1925 for "conservative rest" to wait for nature to wipe out the tuberculosis germ. For three years, he rested patiently and faithfully on his iron frame, in the same bed, in the same sunny location, being prepared for the operation that would cure him.