Creatively Aging

I had occasion recently to walk in the gutter of a busy city street. A construction site forced pedestrians to walk into this tunnel of wood and plastic. I noticed a stream of water, muddy and turbulent, coursed closest to the sidewalk’s edge. I walked along wondering about waste and muttering Mother Earth thoughts, silently condemning developers and construction men alike. Then I noticed the water was no  longer  in the gutter but that the  curb was wet. The volume of water in the gutter was invisible on the broad lip of the curb. And that made me think of change. Change is like that water on the curbstone. It is visible not necessarily in itself but  because something is different – the difference between wet and dry  is  noticed, even by the inobservant eye –  but the volume of water is only noticeable when it flows in the gutter. Small things are different  every day, small things make a difference every day  but  change is noticed when a sufficient volume of  small things, such as water droplets, form a flood in the edges of our world. Maybe there is justice in that. Small matters!