One with the River

Grace and I head out to the boat launch this morning...I'd be lying if I didn't admit I had some trepidation!

I push away from the shore and don't want to venture too far or lose sight of the boat launch...But soon I plod on - more confidently - to the other side of the river...

I explore the shoreline, but find my side of the river to be more beautiful. The rocks and my bench seems so different from the water...I now look longingly on them as I had looked upon this side - knowing that I have traveled far...

I explore areas that have called me and then paddle upstream - trying to find a rhythm... Every now and then I find one - I go into a zone and paddling seems effortless, as if I had done it before... Yet this is work and the rhythm is elusive...

Grace and I float in the gentle breeze and the warm sun as I offer up prayers - here - in the center of the river - grateful that at last after 9 months of visiting this place I am now one with the river...

I give thanks for all the things I have experienced - good and bad - everything is always a lesson - and all that happens truly follows a Divine order of things...I trust and know that...

So many beginnings in the last few months and weeks - teaching in my new studio tonight, teaching at the studio that has been my spiritual home - and now experiencing Grace in so many permutations within this river. So much that has led me here - to this point... And there is still so much farther to go!

After two hours, I reluctantly return to the shore on my side of the river - Grace and I are no longer river virgins - both of us initiated by touch, by sight - by dazzling vistas, and by thought - prayers offered and received by the river and by the Divine...

"The water is your friend...you don't have to fight with water,
just share the same spirit as the water,
and it will help you move."
- Alexander Popov

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