Believe in the Ripples

Some time ago, I was sitting by a lake in the early morning. A man was pouring buckets of water out of his canoe nearby. As I looked out over the lake, there were tiny waves all over it, ripples extending clear to the opposite shore, all from this one man’s very small bucket of water. I followed the ripples closely – surely the ones in the pattern of the water so far away could not be from this one man. But then he stopped. The water grew still again and I saw clearly that his small splash was indeed making ripples so far away that I was sure he was entirely unaware of them. He had his head down, looking at the boat the whole time.

‘Just keep on writing,’ said the voice of the Spirit to my heart. One day, I will finally pour the last bucket of water into these novels and I will look up and be astonished at the lake full of waves I have created, touching people’s lives, I hope.

Sometimes I feel guilty about not committing more time to writing since I have felt very much led by the Lord to do it. Occasionally, He has to remind me that taking care of myself and my family and teaching my daughter come first. I think the Lord leads many of us to do certain things that will have ripple effects we may never understand. It may not be writing for you. It may not even be the same thing every day.

Others are at times astounded that I have stuck with my writing for so long without even submitting for publishing yet or moving on to something else or just giving up. I’m not sure if “stuck with” is the right phrasing. I just keep coming back to my writing every time I’ve abandoned it to work on other pursuits – service in extended family or for other church members, family history endeavors, cleaning up my house, or painting it, having babies. When I can, I pour another bucket, no matter how small the splash may be. (One day this week I worked for three hours and ended up with one page of new text).

But part of why I’ve been able to do this is that I believe in the ripples. My goal is not singularly to ripple through the publishing world or make money. Of course, one of my goals is to get it right and to have it be the best it can be. (Yes, I hear all you writers out there saying that you have to know when to stop editing, and I hear you, but that’s not what this is – I’m really just not finished creating.)

I believe in other ripples, some as simple as having my friends and family read it for me before I submit for publishing and have it impact their lives in whatever way the Lord intends. Another ripple is the eternal perspective it helps me to keep on life, because of the nature of what I’m writing. It’s also prompted me to study the gospel more deeply than ever before. And it has brought me into relationships with people whom I never would have met had I not decided to become a writer. Ripples have even come from the things I’ve done while the writing was on pause. I’m okay with that.

So I will keep trying to live my life – Keeping Christ at the center as much as I can, remembering my family and my own spirituality and teaching my children first – and pouring bucket after bucket into my writing, no matter how small each splash may be, having faith that the Lord will take the ripples as far as He needs them to go.