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T.S. Eliot wrote, “You know only / A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, / And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, / And the dry stone no sound of water. / Only / There is shadow under this red rock, / (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), / And I will show you something different from either / Your shadow at morning striding behind you / Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; / I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”
”There are many pleasures to be derived by drawing up to a comfortable rock or well-appointed stump and watching a stream go by. It is no coincidence that great cities consider fountains and pools among their most important assets. The soothing effects associated with water in any form take the edges off the annoyances of daily life.” Norman Strung in Field and Stream and featured in the Points To Ponder column of the October 2001 issue of the Reader’s Digest magazine.
Consider a stream on its journey. It may meander its way through a shaded ravine, come out into the sunlight or moonlight to eddy in a pool for a time, and eventually continue on its way. Look at how it smooths the rough edges on the pebbles that lie on the stream-bed just below the surface. It is a process that takes eons of time, but we see the results when we lift a smooth pebble from the water.
If we drop that pebble back into the water, an amazing thing happens…
This called “Drop A Pebble In The Water” by James W. Foley, featured in the 1936 Doubleday collection, “Best Loved Poems of The American People.”
“Drop a pebble in the water: just a splash, and it is gone; / But there’s half-a-hundred ripples, circling on and on and on, / Spreading, spreading from the center, flowing on out to the sea / And there is no way of telling where the end is going to be. //Drop a pebble in the water: in a minute you forget, / But there’s little waves a-flowing, and there’s ripples circling yet, /And those little waves a-flowing to a great big wave have grown; / You’ve disturbed a mighty river just by dropping in a stone. // Drop an unkind word, or careless: in a minute it is gone; / But there’s half-a-hundred ripples circling on and on and on. / They keep spreading, spreading, spreading from the center as they go, / And there is no way to stop them, once you’ve started them to flow. // Drop an unkind word, or careless: in a minute you forget; / But there’s little waves a-flowing, and there’s ripples circling yet, / And perhaps in some sad heart a mighty wave of tears you’ve stirred, / And disturbed a life was happy ere you dropped that unkind word. // Drop a word of cheer and kindness: just a flash and it is gone; / But there’s half-a-hundred ripples circling on and on and on, / Bearing hope and joy and comfort on each splashing, dashing wave / Till you wouldn’t believe the volume of the one kind word you gave. // Drop a word of cheer and kindness: in a minute you forget; / But there’s gladness still a-swelling, and there’s joy a-circling yet, / And you’ve rolled a wave of comfort whose sweet music can be heard / Over miles and miles of water just by dropping one kind word.”
Have you ever seen one of those stone tumbling machines? Pebbles and stones are placed inside and when the machine is turned on, the stones tumble against each other. This machine needs to be kept going a very long time. Not just a week or a month, but day in and day out for maybe a year or more. Patience is needed where stone polishing is concerned. Eventually you will open up the machine and find stones that have had all their rough edges removed. They are smooth and polished. They bear little resemblance to the stones they once were. If you didn’t know any better you might consider them to be almost gem-like. As one writer said, who described the process on the internet, “Deeply burnished, glistening like fire, impossibly flawless stones are now warming the skin of your palm. You can’t bear to put them down: they are too sleek and beautiful.” This writer goes on to suggest that when we run up against trouble, whether it be a careless word or even illness, remember the stones. Maybe we’re being polished in the hands of our Creator.
Its been said that time flows like a river. We experience it in a fluid motion. Sometimes it feels like time slows down or even stands still. That’s when we might experience it like an eddy in a pool. Eventually time will move forward again, on to its final destination.
George Eliot wrote, “The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.”
There is a story called “Magic Pebbles” byJohn Wayne Schlatter in the collection, “A Second Helping of Chicken Soup For The Soul” published in 1995. It tells the story of a group of nomads who are preparing to bed down for the night, when they receive a visitation from an angelic being. The being tells them to gather as many pebbles as they can and carry them on their journey for a day. They are told that when they retrieve the pebbles they will be glad and sad. They are dismayed. They believed this being would impart some grand wisdom, but they are being told to perform some menial task. They collect a few pebbles, though. The next night, they find that the pebbles have turned into diamonds. They are glad they have the diamonds, and sad they didn’t pick up more pebbles.
One final thought…
Charlie Brown once complained, “I went trick-or-treating, and all I got was a bag of rocks.” If he got a bagful of rocks and pebbles like the ones I’ve photographed for you, he is very rich, indeed.
***
Don Jackson
