The grass isn’t green yet, but last year’s lawn mower left its mark.

I had another lesson this week to remind me that you just don’t know how what you say and do affects others, nor how far-reaching your impact can be.  Someone repeated back to me an insight I had shared, as she received it third-hand, with nearly exact phrasing and gestures.  I was awed that it had come back to me and the impact it had had — in that others had repeated it, that it had affected them.

While this ripple felt good, I wonder what “negative” impact I have had with some previous behaviors.  Have I denied what has rippled back to me?

The poem, Aubade, by W.H. Auden reflects this better than I could ever say.

“I know that I am and will,
I am willing and knowing,
I will to be and to know,
facing in four directions,
outwards and inwards in Space,
observing and reflecting,
backwards and forwards through Time,
recalling and forecasting.”
– W.H. Auden, Aubade