The River

...a poem from our prayer room;

---The River---

"From a distance I can see the river
it looks as it has always looked
it never seems to alter.

The seasons come.

Spring brings new life,
a lightness in spirit, fragrance,
daffodils, crocuses, blossom, warmth from the sun.
But the river doesn’t change.

Summer – a flourish of green,
the trees are full and populated,
the sun is bright and life is carefree.
As I look at the river, it has shrunk back from its banks, but otherwise, just the same.

Autumn leaves begin to fall,
there’s beauty in their many colours – reds, oranges, yellows, golds, until eventually brown and crunchy leaves.
The winds pick up, birds fly away and I wrap up.
The river rises a little, leaves float on it’s surface, its appearance somehow static and sorry.

Winter brings with it coldness, grey skies, bleakness, and a transparency in natures stark unveiling.
The trees depict a monochrome existence, longing for springs delight.
Snows fall and in winters fleeting sun, there is a brightness and a hope.
Not so for the river, it does not change, it is indifferent.

And so I encounter the ups and downs of life’s seasons
but the river does nothing, it does not change or alter very much,
warmer, colder, deeper, shallower but otherwise unchanged in this shifting world.

Then one spring day, I decide to approach the river.
I have only ever looked at it from afar but I happen to wander closer.
As I do so, I realise that the river is not as still as I had once thought.

A new perspective is born in me,
I see the evidence before my eyes; over time it is the river that has changed the landscape by surging forward and pushing back the banks, twisting and turning, carrying, prevailing, seeking and finding.

The river I have witnessed season after season isn’t actually still, but always moving,
drawn by an unseen power – its current.
I was wrong, the river does respond, it does listen.
The current flows through the river, moving the waters on a journey that is continuous and infinite.

What a foolish mistake to believe that it was motionless, inactive, silent.
The waters keep their momentum, obedient to its current, listening, answering the call of the unseen power.
The river brings life, its waters offer hope, nourishment and will never stop affecting.
I see now that I must not trust in the appearance of things.

I am at the rivers edge, I know I must see more and experience what has been hidden from my inner being.
I put my hand in the river and I can not stop it’s flow, it will always find a way of moving onwards.
I can feel its strength, relentless in its purpose.
It is obvious to me now that there is life below its surface.
This river is far from passive, as I once thought, but instead a surging force constantly at work, season after season.

Spring, summer, autumn, winter
The river moves on and on and I know I want to stay close and journey too –
I want this current, this life to surge forth in me and so I begin to travel through life’s changes,
just as the river does.

I am no longer static, a spectator of a changing world, I am moved and empowered to change by a greater power, trusting now that things are not always as they seem.

No matter what the seasons bring, I will trust the river that lives, that hears, that shapes, that speaks, that answers, that is my constant, that keeps me moving in its flow."

Michaela Hyde