Looking Beneath the Surface...

   Thoreau called a pond the "earth's eyes" which reflects the many moods of Nature.  I've come to appreciate this even more intimately with my many visits to Little Clemons Pond these past two months.

   The pond surface can change within minutes.  This day, an approaching rain storm turned the surface into silver silk...a really stunning effect.

   Or perhaps I should say "affect".  I'm am beginning to see an emotional component to the water that I never thought of before.  Normally the water is serenely still, only disturbed by a passing breeze that, as it did above, just rippled the water surface.  I decided to introduce a bit of chaos to the sublime tranquility of my little pond.

    PLOP!  A small stone I tossed into the pond created beautiful ripples and a kind of quick silver surface.  The lily pads rocked back and forth and the circle widened until, in less than a minute, all was returned to a lovely calm.

   The pond absorbed my interference with ease.  It seems to me that tranquility and peace is the natural character of the pond.  It takes disturbance in stride and quietly returns to its preferred state.

   I walked away knowing that, yet again, the pond had something to teach me.  We may not be able to avoid life's disturbances...intrusions into our calm...but we can let them run their course, absorb them into ourselves and then return to our preferred way of being.  They subtly change us but they can not alter our essential being in the long run.  I hope I can remember that the next time a "disturbance" in my life occurs...this too shall pass, says the pond.