“Help” is a prayer that is always answered. — Anne Lamott

Concentric rings:
Jade pebble
Cast into reflected moon.
Perfect circles ripple

Seeking the pond’s edge.
Begin in silence.
Let action ripple through your life:
Self, family, neighborhood, community
To the greater world.

The only sequence possible.

Such a simple release of energy: A single stone dropped into the surface of a pond creates ripples that echo across the water until at last they reach the shore. Life is like that — birth and life, relationships, work, patience, healing.

What better way to see clearly the workings of life and the order in which change happens on a larger scale.

The size of the ripples depends upon the energy and mass of the stone. A large enough stone could, if thrown with sufficient force, splash all the water out of the pond. Yet the smallest pebble creates a visible ripple. To keep the ripples moving, drop more stones in the same spot.

Think of rain striking the water’s surface: hundreds of impacts all at once, the resulting waves sometimes reinforcing one another, sometimes canceling each other out. When people work together, it’s like a series of stones dropped one at a time into the same spot.

Continuity and effort.

Work at random, and there can be no way to predict the outcome.

Focus therefore on a single point of contact. Call it purpose if that word suits you. Be the illumination you want to see in the world.