The Ripple Effect

As each drop hit the surface, I sat mesmerized as every single one would create and intertwine with looping, concentric circles, just as any of us do when dropped into this world. We join the pool and immediately those who birthed us, parents circle us, then their parents from the circle besides, extended family, community, the friends we make as we grow, the teachers we find and their friends, their teachers, their families, until we're all interconnected to a myriad of each others circles, to all the circles, always moving and changing, but always connecting. And yet, if I held a hand so as to block drops from falling, the change made to the patterns by the absence of one was imperceptible: even if twenty or thirty drops hadn't fallen, while the pattern would be completely different, very few of us would be able to perceive our differences.

Each of us matters, each of us is part of a wide, arching pattern of connection and community. Without us, the pattern is not the same, and yet, even without any one of us, it keeps moving, keeps growing, keeps branching out all the same. What we do always sends out ripples what we do not do is not without impact, either: without action, the pattern is different than it would be otherwise. We and all we do are all essential and inessential all at once, in perfect, beautiful and bittersweet paradox.

Beautifully penned & photo by Heather Corinna