Everyone Matters

I have just finished reading The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters by Andy Andrews which I was provided by Book Sneeze to review. It is a short inspirational book that deals with the question we all ask at some point in our life, " do I really matter." Normally, I wouldn't have picked up a gift book, but this one effected me in ways I didn't expect.

Honestly, I'm not sure I would have appreciated this book had I not read it at this specific time in my life. Lately, I have been contemplating how much impact one person can make and if my choices are really important. This book hits that topic head on, starting out with explaining the butterfly effect. Basically, the idea is the flap of a butterfly's wings on one side of the world can start a chain reaction leading to a hurricane on the other side of the world. One small action can lead to a world changing reaction.

He then goes on the tell the story of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. A former professor, now turned Colonel in the Union Army did something made a choice that established a course of history that may have been very different had he chosen differently. In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Chamberlain had to choose between retreat or facing the enemy head on. His man had held on through many attacks. The logical reaction would have been to retreat, instead Chamberlain chose what to some may have looked like a suicidal charge. Without that choice, our nation may have looked very differently today.

When I received this book in the mail, I never would have expected the outcome. The ideas in this small gift book have kept me up at night. I think about the choices I'm making and what the outcome of those choices might be. I am beginning to see that every life matters.