GOING WITH THE FLOW:

Life is a canoe trip down a rushing stream.
You can’t turn back, though you long to do so.
You can only move with the current, churning and splashing along.
But how I would like to back up stream and take another look at that breath taking view of mountain peaks, or back to that spot where the water is calm in a pond created by a family of beavers.
How I would like to get back upstream to the point before the canoe overturned and drenched me and I had to pull it up to shore and bail it out.
Back up stream, knowing in advance where the whirlpools and eddies are and the hidden rock that lie waiting to ram my shinny craft.

But life flows on.
And I must go with the flow.
Go with the openness and flexibility to what life brings.

Going with the flow is risk.
I never know when there may be another capsize.
Or even when the trip will be ended by a rock punching a hole in my craft.
But that’s the thrill of it all.
The life and death struggle to keep afloat and moving with the flow.

Moving along, the stream get broader.
I become more skillful in maneuvering the craft of life.
Going with the flow, I discover there are even more thrilling views, views never imagined.
The serendipity of it all is almost too much.
I hadn’t planned on passing through a meadow blazing with spring flowers.
Or seeing a proud buck brazing in the distance.
Or an eagle soaring overhead.
These are the extras of life.
Things I didn’t earn.
Things I didn’t count on
Things I don’t deserve.
They are gifts.
Gifts from the Giver.

I know not what lies ahead.
But I know I must go with the flow.
And I would not turn back upstream.
No. Not really, even if I had the chance.
For there are too many challenges.
Too many thrills to lure me on.
And on.
And on.
by Perry H. Biddle Jr.