I’m not sure whose quote that is but I first heard it when I was starting to learn more about Buddhism. It’s about how everything is constantly changing and even I am not the person I was five minutes ago. Something happened to me within the last five minutes that changed me, even if it is something small. For example, I was watching the Dick Van Dyke show this morning and realized what an amazing physical comic he is. That knowledge is now a part of me that wasn’t there ten minutes ago. Sometimes what changes is something big. I am a different person since the death of my daughter. I am a different river.
Enough philosophy! I’ve been spending more time on the Slate Heritage Trail, a rail to trail in my home town of Slatington. Part of the trail goes by a section of Trout Creek where I spent my childhood. I noticed a big change. There is an island in the stream called Around the World Island. When I was a kid, from the bank on the railroad side, you could easily step over a small flow of water onto the island. The main flow went around the other side of the island. On that side of the island I did a lot of fishing and often crossed a hand bridge installed by the boy scouts. Guess what! That’s completely changed around. The main flow is right along the trail and the really small flow goes around the back of the island.
That got me thinking about life. Of course it did! We may be headed in one direction but things happen in our lives that send us in a completely different direction. Sometimes those changes happen over time. Sometimes those changes occur in an instant. Sometimes we have control over the changes. Sometimes they just happen. We are all like rivers and streams. We keep moving toward our destination and absorb all of the changes that happen on our journey. The cool thing is…we usually get to choose what happens to us after a change. We have control over how we react to change!
Enjoy your journey! It’s bound to be wet and wild!
A Semi-retired Kind of Life 