Rippling water is scintillating motion. The appearance of rippling water is one of the most memorizing things, the constant change and near-chaos is somehow tempered to a calming pattern. There is in infinite variety of rippling water based on the constructive and destructive interference of the waves because there are so many origin points of waves. It may be a physicist’s nightmare to deal with such a complex system. There is still a simplicity to the ripples. There is a novel geography of hills and valleys. Each one could become a work at an artist’s hand. Overall they form a tapestry of movement. In many places, there seems to be no end to the movement, yet the waves of a rapid appear so consistently that they can be numbered or even named to be tackled by generation upon generation of brave rafters. The giant ripples of rapids and surf create a wonderful, dangerous playground. The miniature ripples at the fringes of rivers and ponds create an interesting image to stare in meditation at. The moving pattern of illuminated water in tubs and pools create a message for relaxation or a medium for athleticism. The way light moves through the water an exits each different portion of a ripple adds a sense of magic. The very ability to capture light as a liquid is the foundation for fantasy stories. It is a key ingredient of the magic potions and an indicator of mystery, wonder, and love. The flat light on the face of a wave can act as a magnifying glass while the crest can create a scything blade of light or darkness as it moves across the surface of the water. These patterns are reversed and forwarded over again if the rippling water reflects onto the lower section of some surface such as a bridge or rock cropping. There the light itself plays the twining, lightning patterns of the rippling water below. It is at once entirely natural and belonging to a world not our own. It becomes easy to imagine time-loops and portals to other universes when gazing at these reflections. The reflections of the real world themselves are changed and renewed in the rippling of water. The stretching, shrinking, destruction and reconstruction of amazing views in rippling water gives a new sense of movement to those monuments, and you can drift in a dolphin’s dream at the prow of a boat, watching as those playful, intelligent creatures jump between the realms of air and water. The water rises to catch the light of dawn or dusk and throw it back again with the added silver moonshine or the twin roads of silver and gold leading into space and the Sun and Moon themselves if you can only be brave and agile enough to tread their ever-shifting paths.
Ode to Rippling Water
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