Ebb
and Flow
“I
would like to live
like
a river flows.
Carried
by the surprise
of
my own unfolding.”
John
O’Donohue
Having
spent the last week close to someone who was dying, I am thinking more about my
life. I think a lot of people who have lost someone to Covid-19 are probably
thinking the same things—about how fragile and tenuous life is. My friend, for
instance, survived the horror of Multiple Myeloma, including a bone marrow
transplant, just a couple of years ago. He was resuming life after that
death-defying treatment, only to sustain a lethal injury in a fall. We never
know what will happen next, regardless of how careful and aware we are.
There
have been several turning points in my life when I asked, “what’s next?” I’ll
bet there have been for you, too. Any time we make major life changes; move
from one location to another, marry, divorce, have a child, lose a job, hit
bottom, or hit top, just to name a few. When I consider John O’Donohue’s short
poem above, and compare my life to a river, I see these junctures as bends and sometimes
as snags—some have brought me to my knees, and some have spurred me on. There are
ebbs and there are scary white-water rapids. Rivers are like that, and so is
life.
Even
without a major life event, we ought to stop from time to time and inquire “what’s
next?” So many of us just plop into our rut and run along it way past the time
it is productive or enjoyable. We get comfortable with the discomfort of our
rut. I met a man recently who works for a government agency during the day. He hates
his job, but has a family to feed, so he spends every evening and weekend doing
a separate job—the one he loves. It made me wonder when, exactly, he sees that
family he works so hard to feed. There are the so many ways we use up our lives
doing what we think is necessary, without considering the sacrifice or the toll.
Then we hit one of those bends in the river and are shocked into rethinking our
journey. The bends are scary, but they also give us an opportunity to change
direction.
So, I ask
you…what’s next for you? Have you given some thought to that? Maybe you aren’t
here to live in your rut. Maybe there is something that’s been tugging at your
heartstrings forever that you’ve put off because it seems impractical or
impossible. I can tell you this: don’t wait to live the life you want. Life will
always be unpredictable and full of bends and snags. Get your boat out on that
river and enjoy the rest of your journey.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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