Try this experiment with me. Before reading the second paragraph, I invite you to pause at the end of this paragraph for just sixty seconds and ponder this question: Why are you reading this book--what is it that has compelled you to invest your precious time and resources to explore Encouraging Words ? Although the thoughts and words that float to the top of your awareness may be different from mine, I propose that the feelings that wrap themselves around those thoughts and words are probably the same. Reading spiritually uplifting ideas helps us intuit a sense of hope, faith, courage, and perhaps most significantly, a feeling of connectedness and oneness with something larger than ourselves. This feeling, in turn, sublimates as the ineffable energy we know as inner peace, which is what every human being longs for. Ultimately, the sense of connection and oneness we feel subtly arises from our embodied belief that, as Ernest Holmes so eloquently summarized, Spirit is all there is--period. Speaking spiritually and metaphorically, there is One Vine and many branches, so perhaps the koan (or divine paradox) is "Where on the Vine of Life do I end and you begin?" We are One.and the impact of this truth is far reaching-- very far reaching . Awakening from our spiritual amnesia will lead us to a deeper understanding of why we are all together on this planet.

Perhaps that remembrance might even lead to the creation of a world that works for everyone--a world where reverence, selflessness, generosity, cooperation, loving-kindness, and compassion are the norm rather than the exception. You might consider this your call to action. The takeaway is that you really do matter; everything you do has an impact on someone, somewhere, even if you don't know him or her. Think of yourself as a pebble sending out ripples that grow into waves which continue to touch other lives far beyond your knowing reach. So the question we must ask ourselves isn't, "Will we make a difference in the world?" Knowing we are one--and understanding the power of the ripple effect--the real question is, "What kind of difference will it be?" That is how much you matter.