Pre.S. The following is an elaboration of this post from June 2021.
Where’s the best place to make a pond ripple?
At the pond’s front? To where it’s deepest? Dead in the middle?
Here’s what I think: …There isn’t one.
The ripples from a stone dropped into a pond will ripple outwards regardless of where the stone hits the water. It’s the nature of the water to ripple when the action of the stone hits it.
Now I ask you this: where’s the best place to make a difference in the world?
Answer: there isn’t one.
Right where you are is as good as any.
What you have right where you are—is a pond. One that ripples just as any other pond ripples.
And what each of you reading this have right now—are stones in your hands… or ideas in your head if you want to break from the metaphorical.
And what so many of us do with our stones is… wait.
…Wait until we get to a different or bigger pond… wait until we get a perfectly shaped rock… wait until we time our circumstances or the weather out just right…
And so many of our stones just get left unthrown… stacked in our head… collecting dust… just waiting for the moment when we’ll finally utilize them.
…And we’re not talking about a handful of stones. We’re talking about the equivalent of an ocean’s worth of stones just washing up and down the floor of our mind.
Stones that could cause ripples of kindness, ripples of growth, ripples of hope, ripples of generosity, ripples of strength… if we just trusted ourselves enough to (finally) let them free.