Day #802 - Over Time

Today and Forever

I met up with a dear friend at Kew Gardens a couple of weeks ago: as we walked around the treetop trail, I saw old graffiti, carved into one of the trees, maybe thirty years old. The act of one moment - an impulse - caught in time, carried forward.

As the tree grew, the graffiti stretched out, and rose from the ground, deformed, but still totally legible, a polaroid moment, caught in the bark.

Our actions have an impact, which may be washed away by the next wave, or caught and carried forward. Sometimes a single, simple action is carried through a whole life: most people can think of one comment, one experience, one teacher or stranger, who changed the course of their life, or who stands as a chapter marker, separated from time.

These separations may also be an act of intention: we may seek to ‘stand for something’, or ‘against something’, and hence to effect change over time.

Consider your leadership against the gradient of time: your impact today, between the waves, and the parts of it that are captured and carried forwards.