“God makes the rivers to flow. They tire not, nor do they cease from flowing. May the river of my life flow into the sea of love that is the Lord.”
~ Rigveda #2 excerpt, translated by Eknath Easwaren
A rives never tires or ceases because it’s always pulled by an ever-present force — gravity. The earth is a hugely strong attractor. Nothing a river does can change its destination. It WILL get to a sea.
And none of us can avoid the pull of love, 
according to the Sanskrit text quoted above. No wonder that text’s title translates to “Praise Knowledge,” for this is indeed a deep and praise-worthy thing to know. You know it by feel — from experiencing that pull, moments of falling into that sea of love*, and the cycle of emerging only to flow in that direction once more.
The journey always involves beauty/messiness — meandering; erosion; friends, family, lovers, and loss; moderation and eccentricities; abrupt steps; floods. Thanks be.
* This quotation provides maybe my favorite definition of “God.”
Beauty/messiness… must remember that. For a moment (okay, an hour or so) today, I felt as though my river had ceased. Clearly just met some ice, or something. Maybe a beaver dam!
Oh yeah — dams are an issue! But always a temporary one. The river always has its way with them, eventually. Beaver dams are actually a healthy, natural part of the journey almost all of the time. (Despite the heated objections of otherwise sweet, fly-fishing cowboys, this is true. Maybe I will write a post for them rather than just fielding their frustration in saloons!) Human-built dams are less healthy. In fact, it’s a blast to dynamite them out of there. That will be my NEXT post for sure… thank you for the idea, Corgi lover!