This world does not revolve around you but that does not mean that your impact on this world is not great.  You are but a small ripple in a wide lake reaching far beyond what you actually see.  We all are.  This life is not a competition against anyone else, especially.  When I lost weight, people said things about me that were not very kind and instead of being excited for me and the accomplishment that I achieved (not because of promoting it, that’s for sure), these people turned it against me.  In order to make themselves feel better about themselves, they tried to find a way to make my accomplishment nothing.  And for a few short minutes, they might have succeeded, but in the long run, they don’t.  My story is one that I have not been afraid to share with you, not because I think my story is any different from any of yours, but maybe someone gets something from it that transcends into something that starts that ripple moving ever slowly across the water onto which it has been placed.  I shared with CB over the last few weeks, she shared with KK and then it starts.  People had perceptions of me based on what they knew and what I showed them.  Today, I read a comment posted by a teenager that thanked me for saying what needed to be said when others were “too chicken” to say it.  We all question and we all doubt.  We all have fears (mine…shopping) and we all second guess ourselves and the decisions we make.  We all have feelings and we all want to be happy.  If we all have these things in common, why aren’t we all in the same place?  Why aren’t we ready to take that step that can inspire us to take the second step and then the third and so on?  Because we stop our ripple, but we forget that it is not ours to own.  It is difficult to diminish the speed of something that has already been put in motion.   Basically said, if something is at rest, it remain such, until it becomes in motion.  Once it is in motion, it will continue to remain in motion.  Don’t ever stop the ripple.  Let the ripple run its course and always remember that you can start a new ripple at any time.  The other ripples do not need to end…ripples can run on ripples as waves run onto other waves.  Put something in motion and remind yourself that it is not about what you receive that matters most, it is what you give that truly changes this world we live in.  Your impact may not be one that is felt immediately (although, I have seen that too), but it will begin to grow and feed into a heart that once never opened itself to you.  It didn’t know how, but now that the ripple has been felt, you will never be the same again and neither will I.  

Michelle Homme 2012 ©