There is a light dusting of snow in our garden. Not even enough to cover the grass. However, from a distance it looks like a blanket of white and our kids will definitely want to build a snowman. We’ll have to try miniature ones and even that will be a stretch.

When the snow has melted and disappeared in a couple of hours, our meadow will look green. It will appear like a blanket of green grass. And yet, if you would go for a walk, it would not look green at all. Mostly brown, with tufts of green spread around it.

Distance provides a different perspective to up close. Change is like this too. When we are in it day to day, conversation by conversation, it can feel like nothing is happening. But when we step back and take a view of months or years instead of days or hours, we often can see the ‘blanket’ of change occurring.

It may not make the day to day easier, but perhaps it helps see the long arc of change. And that our work, drip by drip by drip, is contributing to the arc. Or that our work contributes to someone else’s view.

Photo by Julian Hochgesang