Ripples in the pond

   I like to think of our lives here together like ripples in a pond.  We are all making little ripples in the still waters.  Every deed we do is like tossing a stone out into the calm still water.  The stone sends out a ripple in all directions.   These ripples interact with ripples made by other lives and contracts dropping into the waters of the pond.   Once you see your stone sink in a little splash and kerplunk.  You do not think of the ripple.  You tossed the stone, and now the stone is gone so you move on too, not thinking of the ripple the stone has made.  That ripple keeps going outward, toward the shore, and as it passes the ripples made by all the other stones, tossed by all the other lives that touch, intermingling and changing the shape of both, as they pass through each other.  By the time your ripple reaches the shore, it has passed through the waves of many many others, changing each a little and being changed in return.   What sort of stones am i throwing out into the pond?  Are they love, kindness, understanding, compassion, tolerance, or are they something else.  I really need to know the answer to that because when my ripple reaches the shore,  i need to claim it and be identified by it.   What has your ripple passed on to the others that it touched?  You may never know in this life time, so it is best not even to pick up the stones from the ground that look like fear, distrust, hatred, prejudice, ignorance.  You do not need to be tossing those in anybody's wake.  You have free choice now, pass them by and toss the loving stones that make others "feel at home" when your ripple passes through theirs.   Once the stone is tossed, even retrieving it will not halt the ripple it caused to flow outward.  In the words of Omar Khayaam:

Splash and play and make happy waves in the big pond of ours.  (love makes the best waves ever)