RIV'ER

noun | Latin: rivus, rivulus

1. A large stream of water flowing in a channel on land towards the ocean, a lake or another river. It is larger than a rivulet or brook; but is applied to any stream from the size of a mill-stream to that of the Danube, Maranon and Mississippi. We give this name to large streams which admit the tide and mingle salt water with fresh, as the rivers Hudson, Delaware and St. Lawrence.

2. A large stream; copious flow; abundance; as rivers of blood; rivers of oil.

- Websters 1828 Dictionary

A STORY

I met a girl called River. She seemed to me like a spring morning: all abundance, her face lit up with a many thousand twinklings as the shadows of a cherry blossom tree, and she smiled with such loveliness it would have made you smile just to look upon her.

In her presence, all thought of hurt and pain goes out the window. In her presence, all that exists is love, as if she herself was made of the stuff.

...

ON RIVERS AND ABUNDANCE

Many towns and cities have sprung up beside the great rivers of the world; their waters nourishing the citizens and the doings of their daily lives. Look at a map of the old world, and you shall see, a river lies at the beating-heart of almost every town.

In nature also, rivers are surrounded by the trappings of abundance. Place a river in the deserts of Arizona, and there will grow a wealth of greenery - perhaps a forest, with the roots of trees reaching down to touch the clear waters.

...

ON THE WISDOM OF RIVERS

The river may teach us many things.

Just by the nature of its being, in its way of passing, a river can tend to the land - giving nourishment to each town, each person, each forest it encounters. Ever it flows on, and in its wake: a great flowering.

If we turn these words around, we may say that all things around a river are becoming the better for it, simply by being in close proximity to its waters.

...

GO TO A RIVER

When we go to a river, let us think of our own flowing energies, which touch the lives around us. Where we walk, those energies flow. Whomever we talk to will be wrapped in our energetic embrace. Our words are like drops in a pool - creating ripples. May these words rain love, grow flowers, nourish hearts. Our actions, too, leave an impression, just like footprints in deep sand. Everything we do and say can be like the gifts of a river.

Just by being,
rolling and tumbling
swirling
through life
we can create
waves
around us

waves of love
that bring joy
and peace
wherever we have walked.

GIFTS OF THE EMERALD RIVER

{ Soča | Slovenia }

A canyon of limestone, covered in delicate mosses and lichens, fluted shapes, spongy beds, damp breath of the forest.

Groves of trees.

Roots upon roots, gathering, holding hands, leading one another down to the water's edge.

Purple flowers, growing in the cracks of the stone.

Shifting patterns and shadows
swirling deep beneath the surface.

A quiet space for thinking.

A silver fish
darts into a dark cavern
leaving a streak of light under my eyelids.

A cave
once the home of a bear.

The banks turned to ice, in thousands of glittering shards.

And at the very end of my path: a crystalline pool;
an emerald set in a ring of dark rock...
serenity,
embraced.