Rings

I looked at the surface of the water; it was a sheet of glass. Then a ripple appeared and a ring was formed, spreading outward. I watched it, not knowing where it would end. Soon another ring formed and it followed the first. Now I had two to follow. The first was frightening, it had no boundary, it was infinitive in nature, it could continue into the abyss. The second was finite; it was contained within the first and had perimeters. By now a third and fourth ring had joined the other two. There were tame in comparison. Each corralled more closely by more narrow boundaries, its' world held in closer check. Each a safer environment than those outer rings and so I watched. Each ring spread outward, slowly dissipating until, in turn, each began to disappear. Now I longed for them, but I feared it was not the inner ones that I really missed.