I looked up from my position of sitting down at the edge of the pond. Standing a few feet away was Justme, my little friend.
“Hello, Justme” I said smiling.
I moved up a bit and made a space for him. He hunkered down beside me.
“Why did you do that?” he asked again. “Why did you throw that stone in the pond?”
“I was watching the ripples,” I said.
He looked thoughtful as if trying to understand the logic of what I was doing.
“See how they spread,” I said.
We both watched as the water lilies bobbed about - the pond skaters rode the enormous waves - the damselfly clung tighter to the reeds trying not to get dislodged as she carefully deposited the eggs below the waterline and a woodlouse got washed down into the water and struggled to survive.
I put my hand into the water and carefully rescued the woodlouse and apologised to it before putting it safely on the side of the pond to dry out before carrying on with its day.
“Throwing that stone in the pond made lots of things happen,” said Justme. “Did you mean to do all that?”
“Well, I knew some of the things would happen,” I replied. “But I did not mean for the woodlouse to nearly drown…or to disturb the damselfly whilst she was laying her eggs. I did not see that coming until the ripples began to spread and it was too late then. I could not stop them”
“Hmmmm”, he said thoughtfully.
It was quiet for a few minutes.
“When the woodlouse fell in it caused ripples of its own. If the damselfly had fallen in there would have been even more ripples.”
“That is right”, I replied. “And where the ripples meet they join up and make bigger ripples.”
Justme was quiet again.
” Do you want me to show you?"I asked.
“Yes please,” he replied. “But first we must check that we are not going to drown anything.”
“O.K.” I agreed and we both carefully hunted round the edge of the pond to ensure there was nothing that was going to be sucked under when the waves sloshed round.
I picked up three stones.
“Ready?” I asked.
“Ready, he replied.
I threw the stones in one at a time aiming them into different areas of the pond.
“Wow!” he said as he watched the deep ripple patterns spread out and touch causing interference patterns that brought even deeper waves and troughs to spread across the surface of the water.
This time two snails rolled off a lily leaf, a slug and several ants disappeared down the side, a frog dived for cover and the lily flowers were submerged.
“Oh No!” he cried, as we scooped out the struggling creatures.
I was annoyed with myself. I should have known that however carefully we had checked, the ripples would have had far more outreaching effects than I could have imagined.
“Every time we throw a stone in the pond it affects everything in the pond.” Said Justme wisely.
“It effects more than that.” I replied.
He looked at me quizzically.
“Well….. It caused ripples in the air above the pond thus changing the movement……it sucked creatures into the pond that do not live there and nearly caused their death……it caused the damselfly to fly away…maybe to another pond or get eaten by a bird on route…it submerged the flowers so that they will no longer have the nectar to attract the insects that pollinate them…and so it goes on.”
“We did all that?” he asked incredulously.
“Yes, We did all that,” It was a sobering thought.
“If we can do all that just by throwing a stone into a pond just imagine what can happen when we do other much bigger things,” he said.
“I am.” I said. “Every action we take - everything we say – every thought we make affects someone or something else somewhere. It is mind-boggling. Some one once said that every flutter of a butterfly’s wing affects the whole world. I am just beginning to understand that now and just what a responsibility it is”
“But isn’t that how it is supposed to be?” asked Justme.
“Yes. I suppose it is,” I replied “But we do have a few choices in what we do, say and think. I can make positive choices with love and good intent or I can make negative ones that create a lot of hurt and pain. The choices and responsibilities are mine.”
“You could have chosen not to throw the stone,” he grinned.
“I could,” I laughed “But I guess this was a learning curve.”
“Look at the pond now,” he said. “It is all quiet and still – no ripples at all.”
I looked. He was right. The damselfly was back busy laying eggs. The frog had surfaced again to poke his head above the water. The woodlouse had long dried out and continued on his way. All was peaceful and serene.
I sat for a while thinking about how easy it is to hurt others - how easy it is to rock someone else’s boat – how easy it is to destroy the things we love the most. My ripples affect another’s ripples and their ripples affect yet even more…and so it goes on infinitum. What a responsibility we have as we tread out own pathways.
I watched as a newt rolled and somersaulted to the surface to take in a lungful of air. He hardly made a ripple at all.
“That is the way to do it, Justme,” I said.
But Justme had gone.
