The ripple effect
Though my shoe barely made contact with it, down rolled the stone from the walking path into the pond this morning. I never even saw the stone, just felt my shoe brush against it while in mid stride. Down to the water’s edge it travelled and, upon entering the pond, made its presence known by sending out gentle, undulating ripples that I watched spread on the sparkling surface, until they became imperceptible to my eye.
My thoughts immediately went to those times we are stones, cast not where we had placed ourselves, but suddenly sent flying in a new direction, into a new environment. It isn’t where we prepared ourselves to be, isn’t where we placed ourselves, and often isn’t where we want to be, but there we find ourselves, nonetheless. What ripples do we send out when we land? What impact do we have when immersed in new surroundings? How do those around us experience our presence?
Though we don’t always stop to consider it, our actions do affect others. Sometimes we are the shoe that sends the stone flying, not stopping to think of how we changed the dynamic we just walked through. But if you’re like me, you’re most often the stone. My hope is that the ripple effect I leave on the ponds where I land is a legacy of peacefulness–quiet, wavy, soft ripples that lightly touch my surroundings in beautiful ways.
- Posted in: Interaction ♦ Life
barrelmakersdaughter 
What a lovely way to look at the world.
And, having been in your pond once upon a time, I trust that indeed your presence is a gentle one.