The Raindrop and the Sea

I quote what someone else has said, but wish to make a new point with its aid.

‘A raindrop fell into the sea. And awed by its expanse, it thought:

By God, I am a mere nonentity beside the sea. If it exists, then surely I do not.’

There came out of the sea a sound, loud and profound, as of a voice, and it declaimed: ‘You do not have to be ashamed of being small and feel so sad.

For all your smallness, you have had experiences which were great. You have watched dawn and evening alternate. You have seen orchard, plain and glade.

Suspended on a blade of grass or a cloud-flake, you have reflected the sun’s rays.

There have been days on which it fell to you to slake the thirst of desert shrubs. Again, there were days when you soothed the pain in the rent bosom of a rose.

At times you slumbered in the vine to wake up as a potent liquid – wine. At other times abed in dust, you made mere mud.

It was out of my waves that you arose. Born of me, you come back to me, come back to be a part of me.

Now rest in my broad breast, and make my mirror gleam with one more beam of light.

Become a pearl and be lodged in the depths of me – My moon, my star, as bright as those of the sky are.’