Ripples

Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  I opened up my e-mail and read a prayer request from a good friend who is scared because her brother is to be deployed to Afghanistan today. Here we are ten years after and I am struck by the fact that this is not and cannot be over. I think about repercussions. I picture a rock being thrown into a river and how the ripples keep going and going and going. We went out for a walk yesterday and it’s funny while I was thinking about these ripples that I happened on this picture. There were many birds in the water, all being kept in captivity because they were broken in some way and couldn’t survive in the wild. They caused constant ripples to occur everywhere in the water, coming from all directions. No deliberate act stands alone without consequences. The ripples of one unselfish brave act or kind word spoken at just the right time can also cause eternal rippling. I’m thinking about the ripples I’m causing and the potential they have to effect generations after me.