And a Butterfly flapped it’s wings…..
Let me tell you about the Butterfly Effect and then give you a great example of it from a story I first heard from an American by the name of Andy Andrews;
In 1963, the Butterfly Effect was first presented as a thesis to the New York Academy of sciences and was laughed out of court. It stated that a butterfly could flap its wings which would move air molecules, which in turn would move other air molecules until it COULD eventually cause a hurricane on the other side of the planet….However, in the 90s professors proved this theory to be right, to be viable and to work every time….and it would work not only with butterfly but with all moving matter, including people!!! They even gave it a Law, just like the Law of Gravity…It became the Law of Sensitive Dependence upon Initial Conditions….and it works every time.
Whatever you do right now really matters as you will never know what impact you have on future generations. Have you ever even thought about that? Bear that in mind as I give you a great example about the Butterfly Effect I heard from Andy;
He talks about the interesting story of a guy called Norman Borlaugh getting recognition for hybridising corn and wheat for arid climates such as the plains of Siberia, the dustbowl of western Africa and the deserts of the Southern USA and South America that had saved the lives of well over 1 billion lives from famine….and growing. But was he responsible for this?…Was it not Henry Wallace, vice president to Roosevelt, who in that position, set up a station in Mexico with its sole purpose, to hybridise corn and wheat for arid climates…and he hired a young man called Norman Borlaugh to run it. It was Norman who got the Nobel Peace Prize for it…but was it not really Henry Wallace who saved these 1 billion people? Should he not have had the reward and recognition?…Really???…Unless it was George Washington Carver, the peanut guy…At 19 years old, he had a professor who would, at the weekends, let his 6 year old son go on Botanical expeditions with this brilliant young student. It was George Washington Carver who inspired this young boy, Henry Wallace, to get a vision about plants and what they could do for humanity! George Washington Carver, the guy who flapped his butterfly wings and created 266 things, including penicillin and cardboard, from a peanut, who flapped his wings and created 88 things from the sweet potato, things we still use today. He happened to flap his wings a few times at a 6 year old boy who just happened to save the lives of 1 billion people…So,… maybe it was George Washington Carver who saved all these people? Unless…it was a Missouri farmer called Moses, who, with his wife Susan, lived on a farm in a slave state but they did not recognise it as such which was a problem for Psychos like Quantrills Raiders, who came through the farm one night, burned property, shot people and dragged a lady, Mary, off, who refused to let go of her little baby George. Mary Washington was Susan’s best friend so Moses did all he could to get the little boy back. He rode several hours north one evening to meet 4 of these raiders with torches and sacks over their heads with the eye spaces cut out. He gave them his last horse as a trade for a sack they threw at him. They drove off while he caught this sack and, in it, a small parcel of an infant boy, barely alive. He opened his jacket and shirt so he could protect the boy from the cold while giving it some warmth. He walked all the way home while talking to this orphan boy as they knew, the mother had already been murdered. Moses and Susan Carver raised this little boy as their own….So, when you think about it, maybe it was Moses, the farmer, who saved those 1 billion people…….unless???…You see how far back we could go???
How far back in your lives can you go to find out who has been an influence in the actions you take today, for the things you do in your lives and for the difference you make in others’ lives.
How far forward can we go to show the lives you will touch, to generations not yet born, whose lives you will influence by what you will do today, tomorrow, next week…….Everything you do matters!!! YOU matter…
There are many opportunities out there; According to my mentor Les Brown, we all have at least four great opportunities a year and if we took just one of those, we would have a totally different, more productive and influential life.
What opportunity will you take? Think about the difference you want to make, the legacy you want to leave, and, as the butterfly effect has already shown, we might never know how big an influence we will have on future generations but, by taking more positive steps on a daily basis, we can increase our chances of leaving this world a better place for future generations.
Many people are so caught up in their own little cocoon, trying to fight their way out to become a butterfly, yes, we must all struggle because, when we break that cocoon for the butterfly to come out, the wings will be too weak and, regardless of its beauty, it will surely die.
But, as John Maxwell mentioned in his latest masterpiece, Intentional Living; “A butterfly cannot go back to being a caterpillar. When you start living the significance story, you get a taste for making a difference and you won’t go back.”
Good intentions alone aren’t enough to make a difference…the world is paved with good intentions; People with good intentions do something good occasionally. People who live intentionally do something good continually.
How will you flap your wings? What will you do? How big a difference do you want to make in this world? It’s not going to happen all by itself but when you, as Coach Wooden’s motto states : “Make every day your masterpiece,” you will wake up every day, ready to make a difference.
To discover how you can begin to live Intentionally, click here.