I AM A RIVER

I am a river. Always flowing, always changing, I am alive. Let me live.

Don’t let my past define me. I am always flowing. Always new.

Don’t let my banks confine me. I am changing faster than they can contain me.

Don’t let downstream tell me where to go. I may not follow.

The river of life keeps flowing, always fluid, always changing. I am a river. I am constantly in motion, changing, exchanging, forming patterns, dissolving them, regrouping.

Just like the energy that forms us, we are constantly in motion. The people you knew once in your life are not the same people when you see them again. I see memories on the social media feed of my grandchildren and wonder where those babies went. They are both still here and gone. I hold more memories of who they once were than they do. They refuse to be defined by them.

The river is both it’s banks, carved out from past rivers that once flowed there, and the ever changing water that flows through them. But it is never the same, even the bank is slowly changing it’s course.

Our brains resist the change and we resist the change of others. We tend to put each other in a well-defined box that exists only in our memories. You are my wild friend, my conservative friend, or my messy friend but are you? Every time you float a river it is different. Maybe you remember the course, it turns under the fourth bridge or there was boat ramp after the island but today the island is submerged because the river has been flowing outside it banks. The storms have carved a new bend and now you are lost. Every trip down the river requires diligence, reading the signs and treating it like you never knew it.

The same is with people. Don’t assume you know your friend. We are all on a spiritual journey, whether we call it that or not. We are all traversing the every changing course of life. We are growing, we are trying to hold on to parts of our banks, and we are letting go.

What if every time you met up with a friend you asked, “What’s new?” and you meant it, ” What is new about you today?”

Like the bank of a river, we strongly oppose change. Whether our own or someone elses, the bank resists change. The bank is familiar, slowly changing so we can recognize it but it too is changing over time. But the river flowing within is constantly changing and we can not contain it. The change is what gives life, with every breath, every pulse of our blood, new life is forming. To not change is to die. So why resist? Let the river flow. Let the bank reform itself.

Don’t let downstream tell me where to go. I may not follow.

Don’t let my banks confine me. I am changing faster than they can contain me.

Don’t let my past define me. I am flowing. Always new.

I am a river. Always flowing, always changing. I am alive. Let me live.