12/14/2024
The River’s Edge
I wonder how many of us have deliberately or by default travelled the banks of our rivers in the aftermath.
I wonder how many of us have chosen to stay away.
Each time I drive Riverside I look for us. I look for the runner or the cyclist. The fisherman or the kayaker. Every time I have traveled in the past few months, I have not seen a soul on the river paths. Not one.
This says so much.
The rivers still flood us...their mark is still a wound. Still glass, rubble, plastic to be plucked from our inflamed banks and our own hearts.
How can we reclaim these vital healing riverscapes, even when so much detritus is still right in our face. Each of us may have different emotions difficult to digest when confronted with our riverbanks. These rivers have been our sanctuaries for enjoyment and solace. They have given us so much.
What if we enter these spaces not with expectance to receive the riches that have so often buoyed our spirits, but rather enter them now, as they are, with an act of giving the gift of our own love to these beautiful living rivers and the land that holds them.
As we generate this love within, might we carry it like a balm through the wreckage as we run, bike, fish or float through the chaos and pain. In this way might we heal ourselves and our relationships to these rivers, through the cultivation of the light in our own beings as we connect to our riverscapes?
I wonder.
I believe many of us have this strength and light within us. 🙏🏼
Prayer to the River
Oh Great Spirit of the River,
Flowing through the heart of the earth,
Carrying the wisdom of the mountains and the songs of the winds,
Teach us to move with grace and purpose,
To cleanse our spirits and nourish our souls.
May your waters remind us of the sacred cycle of life,
Where beginnings and endings meet.
Grant us the strength to follow your path,
Forever flowing, forever giving, forever free.
