It's the pattern of a changing world, waves then ripples

​A dear friend and work colleague sent me an email yesterday morning. The email filled my heart with hope. A hope that I some days lose sight of too easily.

She told me about a young woman who'd reached out to her. The woman had participated in one of the parenting classes my friend's team hosts. As part of the class, the woman had received a training on adverse childhood experiences, and in that training had been given the book "What Happened to You", (a book I think every human should read).

The woman told my friend she hesitated reading the book, but once she started reading it she couldn't stop. She says not a day goes by now that she doesn't visit the book.

The woman has a heartbreaking but all too common back story of foster care placements and homelessness and teen pregnancy and losing custody of a child. But her story has now changed direction and is firmly pointed toward hope.

She'd reached out to my friend to ask if she had any more copies of the book; she wanted to share it with others who might be struggling with some of the same things she's struggled with. My friend assured me several copies of the book are on their way to her.

The timing of my friend's email was perfect. It was the final day of a 3-day training I was leading in which I help prepare people to go out and lead these conversations about trauma and resilience and healing centered relationships in their communities.

On the final day, all of the participants present a small portion of a bigger presentation we offer to communities. I get to sit and witness each of them, soaking in their skills and their hearts and their passions, all while imagining the waves of hope they will be when they roll back into their communities.

I read them the email my friend sent me.

I told them they are all about to embark on a journey during which they might sometimes wonder, is any of this making a difference? I know it's true because I live that journey.

But today, when I feel myself wondering that, I try to spend time with the waves.

I spend time with my friend's email. Her team's parenting classes. They were a wave. And then a ripple.

And now the woman from their class becomes a wave. And then a ripple.

My friends in the class I lead this week. They are all waves, but even this morning I can feel the ripples they are setting in motion all across Southwest Virginia.

It's the pattern of the world. Waves then ripples. We forget that pattern sometimes when we get obsessed with our desire to change the world in any meaningful way. It's an exhaustive obsession because changing the world is utterly impossible.

But what IS possible is waves and then ripples. It's easy to forget that when we get caught up in the world we're trying to change and don't spend time with the waves that are changing it.

So I encourage you today, spend time with the waves. Spend time with them and let them know the ripples they probably don't know they've created. And I promise you, when you do that, you'll be more encouraged than ever to be a wave maker yourself.

There are many beautiful ripples rolling through this changing world. Every day. Nothing reminds you of that more than spending some time with the waves.