Someone once saw a homeless man sleeping in a chair in the public library. It was very cold outside. This someone turned to go home, and found in the foyer an old discarded pair of winter gloves. He went back and put the gloves next to the sleeping man, then went home.
Who knows how our actions affect others?
Someone dreams of a world like this one but somehow better.
Someone cleans the drinking fountain at work...someone else laughs: "Why bother? It's out of order." Someone shakes his head and continues.
We have been taught that dreams (thoughts) are as nothing. We further are taught that a person is powerless to effect change. Someone still thinks of Martin Luther King, thinks of Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks...Someone sighs...
Someone turns and the boy in the shopping cart stands and puts his little arms out, not knowing the danger. He takes the boy, because if not, he would fall. The mother is not afraid, she understands...is thankful. Herein lies peace.
Why do we still not realize the power we have? The world we see was built on dreams.
Someone notices his surroundings...strange cars parked on the street? Not in fear, but watchful for himself and his neighbors. Herein lies peace.
It ripples. Need not name it, as one patiently explains to the confused shopper what "unsweetened orange juice" means: "You mean it has no sugar?" "It has no added sugar; just the natural sugar of the oranges." He had to just walk away from that one...she could not understand. But the effort had been made, do you see?
Someone sees a violent bank robbery on TV then realizes it's a commercial. And society wonders about its warring. That ripples, too.
She was a hospice volunteer, and when the old man died, her calm yet loving manner was poetic as she followed each ordained step...everything in our terms is a process...Yes, peace.
Why do we scan everything in a big rush...Read. Every. Word.
The lady let the gentlemen go ahead of her at checkout, so before he left, he gave the checker a twenty-dollar bill and requested it be put toward part of her groceries. "We are one people".
Freed the slaves, expelled the British, sat in the front of the bus, had a dream, wrote a song about poems, prayers, and promises, sailed past a Grand Lady holding aloft a great torch...inspired us to think hope might be once more upon the land. That ripples, too. And sings. Or chants. Or shouts, "Amen!" Or, "And so it is". Or, "I don't believe..."
A single pebble strikes the surface, ripples.