The lesson of the river

The river flows from beginning to end but never moves. The river is not the water, because the water moves on and is gone. The river is not the land that borders it, but without the land it cannot be defined. The river is not the fish and the plants and the little crawling things, but without them the river has no life. We cannot define the river, but we know what the river is and what the rivr is not.

So it is with life. We are not our thoughts, for they change. We are not our words, they come and go. We are not our flesh, that changes and withers and dies. We cannot define our lives, but we know what life is and what it is not.

Life flows, travels and journeys. It eddys and pools and speeds along at times, but it arrives in the correct time and in the correct place with no help at all and no barrier can impede it for long.

Life is like the river and the river is like life.