Troubled Waters

This morning for my P & Q time (Prayer and Quiet) I sat on a rock at Sandy Bay and watched a sea urchin in the shallows. It was a perfectly windless morning and the water sat still.

Slowly some ripples began to trouble the little urchin. I looked out on the bay and saw a large fishing trawler chugging along. The ripples then made sense.

A few minutes later the waters had calmed. The urchin sat peacefully again basking in the sunlit water. Then everything went absolutely berzerk for the little red urchin. These were waves, not ripples. I looked back into the bay to see what could be generating such a massive disturbance. There, alone in the middle of the bay, rowed a single kayak.

How could it be? How could the ripples at the time of a fishing trawler and the waves at the time of a kayak be explained? It took me a few moments to realise the answer. Something had passed before the trawler. Some small motored watercraft that I hadn't noticed out on the bay. Then the trawler had come. Then the kayak. The ripples were the result of the first unnoticed boat. They just took awhile to reach my little urchin friend.

The trawler had caused waves. Big ones. But he was long gone by the time the urchin knew anything about it. And the kayaker? Well, had I been a quick acting conservationist... The kayaker would be on trial for upsetting the waters.