Rivers

We are constantly unfolding. We are each eternal rivers. We flow and we flow and we flow. That is what we do. Sometimes the unfolding and the flowing is so fast we can see it very clearly. The riverbanks next to us rush by in a blur of colors and smells. Our insides grow faster than our skins can stretch. And then sometimes it happens slow. We pick our heads up one day and realize how drastically our landscape has changed. We are wearing new shoes we don’t even remember buying. How did this happen?

Whether slow or fast, the unfolding is happening. It is the river-story of your life. You know this.

But we run into trouble when we are scared of the unfolding. This is also inevitable. As long as humans experience change, they will also experience fear. We cannot know where the river will turn. We can’t know what strange, new shape our happiness or love will take. It is scary to stretch ourselves out across the river: floating, trusting, allowing water to fill our ears. What will I become if I do this? Where will I end up if I am not constantly looking towards the next pretty bank, or the next smooth rock?

Sometimes when these spring rivers rush so fast they make us dizzy, it’s best to just look up towards the clouds. I’ve been practicing this lately. The things rushing by my peripherals are moving so fast, my eyes cannot focus. These things are too close. So instead, I shift my gaze towards the Infinite sky. My eyes understand this. The clouds move slow from down here. This puts my entire life into perspective. I might feel like things are moving a mile a minute down here. But from the perspective of the clouds, I am a snail’s slow crawl across a leaf.

River says: The unfolding knows best. We don’t. Trust the unfolding. Let go, flow.

If you’re interested in lightening your load, making floating down this great river of your life easier, I’m teaching a workshop this weekend: Kundalini Yoga to Lighten Up! We’ll be clearing out the heaviness of winter, releasing wounds and doubts, and bringing in the lightness of spring.

“I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.”
-John O’Donohue