The River

I spend a lot of time in Trexler Nature Preserve, often along the Jordan Creek. I’ve written about Trout Creek, in my hometown of Slatington. I volunteer at Lehigh Gap Nature Center, along the Lehigh River. I love watching the water and I love watching things float downstream. I think that whatever is floating on the current is off on a grand adventure.

Yesterday I was thinking how much our lives are like those rivers and streams.

A river starts out as nothing more than a trickle. Even the mighty Mississippi, way up in Minnesota. That river trickle is like our lives as infants and toddlers. Not a whole lot is going on, but we keep moving forward, getting bigger along the way. Our elementary school years are that river getting wider, other streams join us like we gain friends throughout the school years. You know what else is happening to life and that river? It is getting faster and bigger still.

Eventually that river, just like us, reaches adulthood and the real journey begins. Now that river is big and strong and ready to face whatever lies ahead. The twists and turns represent the explorations of where we want to go, what we want our lives to look like. The rapids are life coming at us fast and hard. We can weather that whitewater because we are young and positive.

But things start to happen to the river and to us. Trees fall into the water blocking the river’s flow; just like trauma and life events slow us from our potential. Dams built on the river are outsiders affecting our lives. There seems to be a never ending series of obstacles to that river and to our life progress. But every once in a while, when the water gets deeper and we get more introspective, the pace slows to a nice meander. We can’t enjoy it for long because here come more rapids, here come more downed trees!

What’s at the end of the long journey? For the river, it’s a bigger river, or a bay or the ocean itself. For us, who knows what lies at the end? We all have our own beliefs, our own religious traditions. But, just like the river ends, our life as we know it will end. So the one thing we do know is that we need to enjoy all of that. All of the twists and curves. All of the downed trees. All of the dams. All of the streams that join us. All of the rapids and the slow meanders.

Let’s all get into a whitewater raft and enjoy the adventure.