The Ripple and The Role

You may think you are steering your life. That you are the pebble in your own hand.

I don’t believe that.

I think life is the hand. We are only the stone it casts into the lake.

As the stone, we might mistake our lives for the sinking feeling – the slow drop to the bottom – but really, our meaning is in the ripples. The patterns we make in others, the movements we’ll never fully see, but which travel far beyond our knowing.

Western science says the universe came into being 13.8 billion years ago. It has been evolving ever since. But few ask what it is evolving towards.

What if the universe is not just a stage for life, but life itself – a vast organism in the process of becoming? In this body of existence, each world is an organ with its own function, rhythm, and pulse.

Earth is one such organ. Our rivers are its veins, its forests the lungs, its coral reefs the filtering tissues.

Species are the cells inside these organs, each living out a tiny but vital role.

A single cell does not know the body’s full purpose. It simply lives its role fully, then dies, making room for others. That is enough.

And so with us. We can marry, befriend, raise children, meet strangers, but who arranges the meetings? Who scripts the coincidences?

It is not our job to know the whole, only to be whole. To find our role, play it as best we can, and when the scene is over, step off the stage without becoming a cancer to the larger organism.

Our lives are our only testaments. If we live them honestly – as exposed as the reed that sings when the cold wind passes through – then like Jesus, our friends, the lives we’ve touched, will come together to write a New Testament.

Your role is not to control the story, but to make your scene worthy of the organism’s memory. When your ripples fade, they will have already reached shores you’ll never stand on.

Play your role well. Then pass the torch.

Uzanenkosi

Torchbearer, Marantu