I went camping over the summer, and had a spot next to a large stream. Through the weekend, I spent a fair amount of time sitting next to the stream watching the water flow by and enjoying the peacefulness of the forest. Like most streams, rocks of various sizes were spread throughout the creek bed, making the water bubble and flow around it. My friend sat down next to me and started throwing small stones into the stream. At first, it didn’t seem like those small stones made any difference in how the stream flowed. As the afternoon passed though, I noticed that the stream was starting to bubble in different ways around the target of most of her stones.
When I work with clients, their lives often feel like a rushing river of trauma, pain, and challenges. Sometimes the reality is that unless a major change in the direction of their life happens, major damage will happen to the client and the people who happen to be in the way. Recently a client looked like they were careening towards serious health problems because the path of their life wasn’t letting them get the health care they needed. The few stones that I could throw in didn’t feel like they’d make much of a difference; this individual needed a boulder and a serious change of course. Even working with other professionals, we’re not strong enough to position a boulder, even if we could lay our hands on one.
Day by day I tossed what stones I could into his stream of life. All the rocks I had been throwing in the stream felt like grains of sand, not nearly big enough to make an impact.
And then, as time went on and their direction changed slightly, it became clear that I was having an impact. The client might have needed a boulder to change the course of their life, but a dam built of all the rocks I could find would do just as well. It’s hard work wading into the depths of someone’s life and trying to change it’s course. The currents are strong, and sometimes there’s pollution in the water making it even harder to stand. Sometimes those currents will knock some of the stones we’ve placed off the dam we’re building, but when we put them back it’s easier the second time. When you put a stone back in place you don’t have to go and find it and lug it into the river, just shift it back where it belongs.
It can’t escape my notice that just standing in the stream changes how it flows too. Even if I can’t find any rocks to add to the pile, just being there in the current changes the flow. The changes it makes seem tiny, but that’s the strange thing about water. A tiny change upstream can have a huge impact downstream. It might be around the corner, out of my sight, but change does happen. It’s hard to know whether that impact will be small or large, or whether it will wash over others downstream, I just have to have faith that the change happens.
Throw a rock in the stream with me. You never know if it will change the course of the river by miles.
Comments