Ripples

With a plop, plop, plop
Boy throwing stones in river
Reorders the world.

Watching my nine-year old at the river last summer, it struck me that the seemingly insignificant act of tossing rocks in the water was giving him a satisfying sense of power. And that made sense when I thought about it: you take a stone from the shore, decide where it may spend the rest of its existence, throw it and see the arc of its flight, hear its splash, and watch the ripples spread farther and farther.

Who knows how moving one stone a few feet will affect this riverbank, this watershed, this natural community of bugs and toads and fish—and how that in turn might affect the wider community? Stone by stone, you are literally rearranging and changing the world. Who can say that this is an unimportant act?

In designing a logo for Makino Studios this week, I chose the image of water ripples. My hope is that my work is radiating outward, quietly reordering the world to be a more mindful and joyful place.

This month my son learned to skip stones. That is to say that with a flick of the wrist, he can now achieve what should be impossible: making solid rock bounce and fly across the surface of water. In a matter of minutes, he learned to expand the limits of the possible. There’s no telling how he might use that knowledge to reorder the world.

Happy birthday to my sweet darling son, turning 10 today. May you continue to achieve the impossible in the decades to come.