We Are All Passengers

 As most mornings. I was out walking in the milky light of predawn and passed a neighbor doing the same. We nodded, exchanged a pleasant "good morning" and went along our separate ways, each flowing into the promise of a new day. 

I looked at the sky and felt the change of seasons stirring in the gentle breeze, as a familiar phrase floated into my awareness: "we are all passengers here".  I thought about how we are all moving through this great adventure we call life, passing each other along the way, exchanging whatever we have to give and then moving on. Some people stay in our lives for a long time, others only for a moment, but there is always an impact, no matter how small.

It's kind of like the "butterfly effect", a term coined in the 1960's by a professor named Edward Lorenz, to describe the fact that nature (and life) is so incredibly complex that a tiny change in one area can have a large and unpredictable impact on another.

"The butterfly effect is the idea that small, seemingly trivial events may ultimately result in something with much larger consequences – in other words, they have non-linear impacts on very complex systems. For instance, when a butterfly flaps its wings in India, that tiny change in air pressure could eventually cause a tornado in Iowa". 
  (Nathan Chandler, howstuffworks.com)

Simply put, everything matters...there is not one single thing we can do that has no consequence.  Even walking on the grass by ourselves will disturb the insects crawling under our feet and may cause a squirrel to scurry into the bushes, where he happens upon some tasty berries to sustain him. The person we pass will be impacted in some way by the tone of our hello and whether we smile or keep our head down.

So while yes, we are passengers, and it may seem sometimes like things just happen to us, we are always in control of our attitudes and actions.  We can have a positive or a negative effect on someone's day...we can be encouraging and warm, or critical and judgmental.  We can offer a hug or stand back, we can be helpful or hurtful. We can offer the peace in our hearts to an anxious world. 

Here's hoping, for each of us, that our "butterfly effect" on the world will be a positive one today!