An Apology that Matters

 She packed her stuff and left early from work. She did not feel like going home. Life had been challenging to say the least. She had slogged for her job, sacrificing her personal life and now both seemed to be slipping away from her. She felt depressed and though she met a counsellor, it did not seem to help. She even had suicidal thoughts which she somehow managed to keep at bay.

That day she did not go home. She went to a park where her father used to take her as a child. She walked along the walking path and stopped on the bridge over a pond. It was a quiet day and there was no breeze. She looked down into the pool and saw her image in the still water.

‘What has my life come to?’ She thought.

A drop of tear fell from her eyes into the pond.

The tear fell right in the centre of her image. Ripples moved outwards from the centre making her image blurry. Suddenly, she recollected her childhood. She used to look down in the same pool with her father. She would throw a pebble and giggle at their dancing images. When she became impatient to see their clear image again, her father would explain, “wait for the water to stand still again my dear!”

A revelation dawned upon her at that moment. Life wasn’t too bad; it was just a phase where she was experiencing ripples! She realised she just had to wait it out, she had to stay put and let the storm pass.  She felt her father’s hand on her shoulder, encouraging her to never give up. She wiped her tears and waited for the water in the pond to stand still again. A few minutes later, she was able to see her clear image again. She smiled and, in the water, she visualised her father and herself smiling. She walked away feeling much better and ready to face her challenges head on.