Every Sunday morning a man used to go for a jog around the park near his house. There was a lake in one corner of the park. Every time the man was running past that lake, he could see the same elderly woman sitting by lake side with a small metal cage beside her.
One day the guy dared to come up to the woman and ask what she was doing there. As the man got closer, he realized that the metal cage was actually a small trap with three terrapins inside. The fourth terrapin was on her lap having its shell being scrubbed off.
After greeting the woman, the man asked: "I see you here every Sunday morning. If you don't mind, I would love to know what are you doing with these turtles."
The elderly woman smiled and answered that she was cleaning the algae build up off terrapins' shells. As the woman explained, "It reduces their ability to absorb heat and makes it harder for them to swim. It can also weaken their shells over the time."
She added that she spent a couple of hours on Sunday mornings relaxing on that lake and helping those little creatures. "It's my own way to make a difference," the woman said.
"But don't most turtles live their whole lives with algae and dirt on their shells?" the jogger asked. The woman nodded.
Then the guy continued: "Don't you think your time could be spent more productively? I mean, despite your best efforts, there are plenty of other turtles living in lakes all over the world, and most of them do not have their shells cleaned. How exactly do your efforts really make a difference?"
The woman smiled, then looked at the turtle on her lap, and said: "If this little turtle could speak, it'd tell you I've just made a difference in its world."
Source: storyfox
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