Ripples

“Your efforts extend like ripples on the ocean, much further than you would ever know.”  
Richelle E. Goodrich

My father gave me many life lessons growing up, but one of them has become my touchstone.  He told me to take whatever dreams, wishes, and ideas that I had and put that energy into a stone or pebble and in my mind throw them out into a pond. The pond could be small or large, but no matter the size of the pebble the ripples would come back to me. Some ripples might come back fast or some slow – depending on the size of the stone – but the ripples would reach me if I threw out that stone.  

That metaphor has been one of the main ways I have lived my life – of seeing what I desire and just throwing it out there and seeing what would happen. The key I have found is to surrender after throwing it – allowing God/Spirit/Universe to co-create with me, and if something is meant to come to me it will. There have been times that I kept waiting for that ripple, or trying to hurry the process, or throwing more stones to make it happen – but it would always turn out that if it was meant to be, that ripple would return.

I’ve been thinking about this concept lately with the release of my new album, “My Heart Is With You.”  It’s always a very vulnerable thing for me to put my creative expression out into the world. Even after 22 albums, you’d think it would be easy – however my inner critic always finds a way to run its old tapes of comparisons, judgements, and unworthiness. But that’s when I come back to the pebbles. If I imagine that this album is another pebble – or even a large stone that I am throwing out into the world – who knows where those ripples will go, who will be touched by it, what good it could do in the world? Then I can get out of my way and just throw that stone and surrender. 

I was having this conversation with my friend Gary Lynn Floyd (who co-wrote many of the songs on this album) while we were having breakfast at a restaurant. We both were getting excited about the idea of throwing bigger stones into bigger ponds and then suddenly we both noticed we happened to be sitting right next to a long box that was filled with hundreds of pebbles and stones! It was if the ye ole Universe was encouraging us to really get this message and start throwing! I wanted to share this idea with you and to ask – what are the pebbles that you are wanting to throw?