It has been an interesting week here. I always feel that life runs somewhat like a river or maybe something smaller like a creek or a stream. You have things that are standing still in the moving water like the rocks and pebbles for instance. Then you have things that are moving along in the water at their own pace....like a floating leaf or a little bug. Then there are things that shift sometimes and remain immovable at others such as the sand at the bottom of the stream.
Life seems like that to me...always moving on so many multi dimensional levels. Some things are stagnant, some fresh, some bogged down, some churning up. Some good some bad. It has always been the biggest of head shakers to me how grief and joy are allowed run through our lives in such a concurrent way. It seems to me that there should be some universal rule requiring that they be separate. If we are having a time of great joy say, maybe, when we are falling in love with that perfect person...we should not have to experience a parent dealing with cancer or our siblings divorce. If it worked that way then our joy would transcend itself into a bliss that we could just float on and everything we looked at and thought about and did would just radiate that happiness pouring out of us.
But I guess if I flip this particular coin of thought over then it would also mean that when we walk through those dark times it would truly be very very dark. Dealing with illness or death or loss of any kind with absolutely no little moment of joy or the tiniest ray of hope would be soul crushing to say the least. The pain might just be outside the human scope of endurance.
So perhaps the universe has it right after all and all of life flows in this inextricable, inseparable and yet glorious mish mash of love and joy and pain and suffering along with all the surreal moments that can and does bring with it.
So we live. And we live with that steady current of time streaming around us. Sometimes we stand still, sometimes we float and sometimes we swim madly. Just like all the other things that are in the stream with us. Our joys and our triumphs, our failures and losses all swirling simultaneously.
There most be a really good reason why life functions this way. Maybe there are several reasons.
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i totally loved this.........
ReplyDeletei've used the water image in my own thoughts...but how did i miss the part about
the things flowin' at different paces or even just standing still?? how did i miss that part??
i love that!!!! i think that will be in my mind the rest of my life....
beautiful post......thank you.....
Living on earth an ebb and flow. Something begins and then something ends. Both mean change. Something I don't do well.
ReplyDeleteThis IS a beautiful post.
Hi, I spun over here via terri's blog.
ReplyDeleteI also have used river images as a metaphor for life (or is it the other way around?). An interesting thought on the coin-flip thing. If a rock stands still in the river, it diverts the flow of the water to either side. At the same time, though, the water gradually erodes and smooths the rock. Each acts on the other and changes it...I think that grief and joy and darkness and light have similar relationships. Each helps us to understand the other better. Just thinking...
Lovely post. So glad to have found you!
I know a very spiritual lady who does a woman's retreat with the river theme. It helps that we live right here on the St. John's so there's quite a visual!
ReplyDeleteAnd once again I'm reminded of a saying (which I never remember exactly) that I heard from a favorite Rabbi: Joy shared is doubled. Grief shared is lessened. I think It is in the sharing, that the emotions do their work.
P.S. I came from Terri's site. She's like a firefly. Her light leads us all over the blogosphere!