Ripples

Our minds can do amazing acrobatics. They can weave complex stories out of anything. Today, for example, I am thinking about ripples and life .

Ripples are pretty gentle and meaningless variations on a water surface. I love watching them on a bay, or as a brook tumbles along. They may sparkle if sunlight hits correctly. Perhaps they indicate something underneath, or merely that a puff of wind is passing by. Impossible to predict, infinitely numerous, gone in an instant, and replaced by another ripple. Sometimes alone, often in sets. And …

But, wait, how does that relate to life? Well I realize how many of the events of our own lives are very like those ripples. Beautiful, constant, but often rapidly gone and meaningless as other events crowd in .

It is important, I think, to help keep events in perspective. We need to know when something is not simple and fleeting. That is one of the true tricks of success, and often very hard to realize. Is that pretty ripple just a delight, or does it disguise a huge wave or other danger ?

Fortunately, this morning it seems that everything I notice is simply of ripple nature. I can lean back and enjoy the patterns .