Thoughts by Our River

Thoughts by Our River
(From the book No Smooshing!)
Gary E. Anderson
www.abciowa.com

There’s an old saying that you can’t sit by the same river twice, and until I bought a farm on the banks of our river, I used to think that was a crazy statement. But I don’t anymore. In the years since we moved here, I’ve sat on the bank hundreds of times, and it not only seems different every time, but I've learned many valuable lessons from our river.

In the spring and early summer, a thick fog often hovers around the river, shrouding it from view. But I find sitting on the bank a great way to collect my thoughts and get new ideas, so I still make my way there nearly every day.

One morning, the fog was very thick and the river was totally obscured. Yet I knew approximately where it was, so I set out to find my favorite spot on its bank. I couldn’t see the river at all, but I knew it was there, in the fog somewhere, so I kept my thoughts focused on my goal of reaching it.

As I got closer, I still could see nothing, but I began to hear tiny echoes of its water as it tumbled over the rocks in the riverbed. My eyes couldn’t see my beloved river, but my ears gave me clues, so I continued walking in the direction of the sound.

Soon, I picked up another clue. My nose began to sense the subtle smells of the river, slightly musty, but clean and fresh at the same time. Although I still could see nothing, I was even more certain that I was on target.

I kept walking toward that place all my senses told me was straight ahead, even though I couldn’t see my goal through the fog, and after a few moments, I came to my riverbank. Simple as it seems, I saw it as a profound analogy for life itself. There are times when we can’t see our goal, no matter how hard we peer into the mist. Yet we have clues and that feeling inside that if we keep moving in a particular direction, our goal will eventually come into sight.

There have been many times in my life when my goal wasn’t clear to me. In fact, it seemed totally shrouded in fog. But I kept moving toward that goal, sometimes taking the tiniest of baby steps, until my goal finally could be seen and achieved.

The river that runs alongside our farm teaches me lessons every day, a constant reminder that maybe the old folks were right—you can’t sit beside the same river twice.

© 2004. Gary E. Anderson. All rights reserved.