I drove to Innisfail yesterday to deliver a talk to the Rotary Club on… making a difference in the world through the stories we tell.

Presentation finished, lunch wrapped up. Thank you’s and You’re welcome’s shared, I drive back towards Calgary. The landscape unfolds all around me. Big sky. Wide open prairies. To the west, the Rockies edge the horizon, their razor-sharp ridges lumbering across the landscape like a giant dinosaur at rest. Wispy white clouds scuttle across the sky, windswept, snow-covered grain fields undulate to the east, dotted with skeletons of trees awaiting spring where farm houses and ranch lands meet.

I play tunes. Loud. Alone in my car it is me and Rachmaninoff. Keith Jarrett. Eddie Fedder. Eclectic. Surprising. Energizing. Like my day. Each note made different by the last.

I think about all the service clubs whose members do so much in our world. The Rotary in Innisfail have a team leaving for Uganda next week. In a small village they’ll build a well, a school-house, take supplies and work alongside villagers looking to create a better world for their children and families.

As I write, there are other groups, men and women from prairie towns and big city towers, who are out there somewhere in the world, lending a hand, giving of their time, treasures, and talents to create a world of difference.

When I get home from my drive, I receive a phone call asking me to sit on an Advisory board for a large not-for-profit that focuses on global issues affecting all of us. I immediately say yes. I want to be part of the difference we make when we join together and create a world fit for all mankind.

What about you? How are you sharing your difference with the world today?