The Ripple Comes Back

September 14, 2026

Sometimes we create something and send it into the world without ever knowing where it goes.

A few years ago, someone made a series of videos that found their way to me. At that time, I had thought that I had lost my ability to write or had a writer’s block so extensive that it had affected me for many years.

I don’t think either of us could have known what those videos would become.

They did not suddenly make me pick up a pen and begin writing again. It was quieter than that. It took a while, and it was a slow process for me to go back to writing. I was not even aware that writing was where I was slowly being led. Something began stirring. A door that had been closed for a long time slowly opened.

Eventually, I found my way back to words.

Or maybe it was the words that found their way back to me.

Then the words became poems.

The poems became songs.

The songs became reflections.

And the reflections kept opening and unfolding into other forms I had not imagined when the journey began.

Recently, the same person began sharing music she had created. I heard a part of one of her songs, and almost immediately, I felt inspired to write a song that had been stirring inside me for a while.

Her creation inspired creation.

And this time, I was able to tell her by way of a comment.

There is something beautiful about that full circle.

We often create without knowing what happens after we release something into the world. A poem may be read by someone whose name we will never know. A song may accompany someone through a moment we will never witness. A few words spoken in a video may remain with someone long after we have forgotten saying them.

Most ripples disappear beyond the place where we can see them. That is the nature of ripples. They don’t stay where they began.

But occasionally, one travels outward and somehow finds its way back.

And someone says:

What you made reached me.

Something in me changed because it did.

And now I am creating too.

Perhaps this is one of the quiet miracles of sharing what we love.

What begins with one person does not necessarily have to end there.

A thought, idea, or message becomes a video.

A video awakens a writer.

A writer begins writing songs.

A song inspires another song.

And somewhere along the way, the creator and receiver may change places.

The person who was reached begins reaching outward.

The one who received becomes the one who gives.

We may never know how far anything we create will travel.

But every once in a while, the ripple comes back.

And for a moment, we get to see that it never really stopped moving.