The Up and The Down and The In Between

December 5, 2018

I have been reading THE SAGE’S TAO TE CHING, thanks to a gift from a friend.  This morning I read verse 25 titled Life Is A River. The conclusion of the verse suggested the reader, “Sit by a riverbank sometime and watch attentively as the river tells you your life.”  So, I went for a walk this afternoon to the closest river I was aware of.  It is a small stream that crosses well below the Gandy Dancer Trail that runs not too far from my home.  I am not sure what the name of this particular stream is, or if it even has a name and it is really not big enough in my mind to be called a river, but I think it would work for telling me a story or two. 

I walked along the trail and then had to veer off the trail and head down to the stream bank.  I stopped at a spot where the stream bed was confined by fallen tree branches and debris that had build up behind the branches.  And this is what the stream told me.

Constricted, apparently. 

Flows reduced and refined. 

A backup or holding onto. 

And just below a letting go. 

This stream, a collection of drops.

Motivated to flow – downhill.

To join with others.

And to part ways as well.

Fingers of ice point out and up.

Foam bubbles, those places in between.

Coalesce and burst, two phases.

United for an instant before going separate ways.

The up and the down and the in between.