The ripple always returns
Sending out waves that reach people in ways big and small
I' v e noticed something very unflattering in recent months. Underneath my mild demeanor is a lot of emotion and it's not always pretty. It's not far beneath the surface either. It often comes up when someone is rude at the grocery store or on the highway. Or when someone acts like this virus is no big deal — this pandemic that has changed all our lives in a drastic way.
What helps me reset my mind is to remember to be grateful for God's blessings and to be reminded that all my actions matter. From the book “Devote 40 Days” is an encouraging story of how our simple acts can have profound results.
Sherri Coale, University of Oklahoma women's basketball coach, native of Healdton, Oklahoma, writes about “The Ripple”:
When I was a little girl, I used to go pond fishing with my dad. He would cast his line, effortlessly, way out into the middle of the pond, and I would splash mine, awkwardly, barely beyond the moss that glued the banks of red Oklahoma dirt to the muddy water that we worked diligently for fish. I would stand on the bank, my toes inches away from the water's edge and watch the ripple race back to me only seconds following my chaotic cast. And I would stand, likewise, waiting — and waiting and waiting — on the water's crawl following my dad's gentle toss.
Funny thing was, no matter what, a ripple always came back.
I was mesmerized by that as a kid. I would watch the circle surrounding my dad's line expand and reach until it died into the earth under my toes. And it happened every time. How in the world could something so slight be so persistent? I used to marvel at it for hours, though I never really knew why. And then one day, long after I'd put that fishing pole away, I figured it out.
It was simple. Everything matters.
Every interaction that we have every single day makes an impact. It might be the way we answer the phone, or the way we speak to the voice inside the box at the drive through line at McDonald's. It might be the eye contact we make with the custodian at the office or the tone of our voice when we say, “Good Morning” to our co-workers. What we do,
what we say, how we say it ... it all matters. We send out little waves that reach people and affect people in big and small ways. Constantly.
And the ripple always returns.
If we're really, really lucky, someone writes us a letter and tells us how we made a difference in their lives.
But mostly, the ripples happen slyly. They slip in and out of people's lives without the giver or the receiver really ever being aware of their significance. They arrive gently and sometimes only after a fair amount of time. Those ripples might show up in the form of a job well done or word well kept. Or perhaps an individual simply walks a little taller or smiles a little broader because of how we made him feel. Sometimes people are just better versions of themselves because of something we did or said and we, as the world at large, are better for it.
“Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.” — Ecclesiastes 11:1