A river flows toward the ocean.
The same river you stood at as a child, tossing flat rocks across the top of, skimming the surface and desperately trying to perfect the technique so you could pass on this seemingly useless skill to your younger siblings or friend from school... This river leads to a vast ocean. The water you dip your feet into on a hot summer day, is the same water that ships will traverse to bring goods to distant lands.
All of life is dependent upon this water which flows through the rut it has carved out over time. It has given life to birds, animals, insects, and people and it has taken lives during times of rushing floods which swept through with the force strong enough to rip up massive oak trees from their roots and pull homes from their foundations.
The river becomes the monster in the story of those who have lost homes, pets, and people within that river's inconsiderate and indiscriminate destructive power.
Several miles down the path of that river, there are those who have never experienced loss or destruction from its power. They know the river as the backdrop of the life they enjoy. It is associated with all the good things in life, all the memories of decades with friends and family, and a source of serenity at the end of a work week.
Is this the same water that decimated an entire community only 100 miles away?
Is this the same water which leads to the ocean which creates the memories of millions of people who enjoy the beaches on their yearly vacation? Is this the same water that created a CAT 5 hurricane which wiped out entire generations of people in its path? Is this the water which allows warships to fire missiles and send airplanes packed with bombs to set fire to areas filled with people who you will never know the name of?
This water touched the feet of a toddler on the banks of the Mississippi when taking her first few steps in front of the beaming joyful faces of her parents, and it became the water stained red with the blood of a family who were in the pathway of a missile fired at a proclaimed "threat," by proclaimed experts at recognizing them.
Is the water evil?
Is the water good?
Is the water merely flowing through life being water?
Is the water separate from living beings who utilize it? If so, how? Does the water not have other components that it carries with it? Is it not made up of mineral compounds? When we are swimming within that water, are we not made up of mineral compounds as well as water? Do the events of our lives flow through twists and turns of varying topography ultimately to become part of the ocean of souls once again?
Have we not experienced the raging destructive events of certain times of our lives that were caused by overwhelming circumstances which "flooded" our capacity to manage our own balance without harming other living beings in the process to varying degrees?
The current of the river shifts because nothing in nature is a straight line. Over time, if an obstacle is harder to wash away, the soft current of nothing more than water is powerful enough to reshape granite. Stagnant water creates the environment for harmful bacteria to flourish and contaminates all the life around it. There must be flow to sustain a healthy ecosystem which all living beings from insects to humans are dependent upon.
Our soul's journey is the river.
Its origin point is also its end- which is yet another beginning.
The soul must flow through the narrow passages over rocks, under busy bridges in metropolitan areas, endure the occasional toxic sludge that is dumped within in by others, and at times of massive change and overwhelming conditions, the pressure valve must be released to disperse all it all and at times has destroyed much in its path to expand. It is in this churning of what was and now cannot be sorted through that stagnation is a real possibility. All of the destroyed stuff in the path is churned up within us. We can't flow and become that healthy beautiful river again without help from others. It will take many to sort out what was destroyed and what may still be of value within the silt and mangled debris. Occasionally there is a miraculous life that somehow is found clinging to the tallest piece of debris that is sticking out of that chewed up mess of things. There is value in the aftermath of difficult times in our life. There is a tremendous healing that takes place when the boogered up mess is sorted through. Yet, it is not a task that can be accomplished without those who voluntarily decided to help you clean it up and make sense of it.
The acceptance of this help is the beginning of the flowing river regaining its proper course again.
There are many people who stop flowing toward the great Divine ocean. They fear the falling away of ego and personality. They do not want to be the drop that becomes the ocean and the ocean certainly can't be the drop! That's MY Drop!
How many people have participated in the river of your soul flowing through their lives? How many have stepped within "your water" in passing. You are in them, they are in you, and all is within the great ocean of soul.
Each of us has an individual essence which is FAR BIGGER than personality or ego. The essence of our individual soul is unique unto us but only because each of us have infinite ways of flowing through life in our soul's journey back to the Source.
There is no separation of the overall drops of water in the sea of souls. We are expressions of God, each flowing through this river of life.
The river can be destructive, peaceful, healing, or can reroute entire sections of terrain, eroding away at foundations that are made of stone. We are the same in our abilities to build, offer respite, or destroy what was standing. The most dangerous water is the water which is stagnant.
We have one guarantee in our lives and that is that life is in its very essence, always changing. If it isn't, it is not serving our ecosystem or doing anyone any good.
To keep the flow moving, care must be implemented to make sure there are no blockages preventing that flow.
Ask yourself what is blocking the flow of your life. Maybe it is a false belief that is no longer serving the greater good of those around you. Maybe it is an old memory that is still painful to the mental touch of thought. Whatever it may be, if it is blocking the flow of life, it must be removed before it becomes a flash flood.
Sometimes that block is so old that you can't fathom that it is having an effect in your current state of affairs.
I will give you a personal example of this:
I had a dream the other night that kind of shook me. I was transported back in time to the age of around 11 years old. I was standing outside of the gymnasium of this school I attended which was far from a safe place of learning or growth. This school was part of a nightmare that I lived each and every day before I finally convinced my parents that I could not continue going there. The gymnasium was one of the places where I suffered the most amount of abuse, especially the locker room. In the dream, I was the age I am now mentally, but it was like I was transported back to 1989 and had to 'retrieve something I had left there' and convince the people at the door to let me in because, "I had gifts I had left there a long time ago.' The gate keepers were reluctant to let me inside. I had to use my ability of charm and persuasion to convince them to let me inside. Once inside, I headed to the locker room area. I saw these packages decorated in nice wrapping paper complete with bows and ribbon locked within a cage similar to the kind of cages you put basketballs, volleyballs, inside of after the kids were done with PE class.
I went into this dark storage area inside of the locker room and got my gifts back. I knew the authorities were on their way to question me, so I had to be quick about it.
The "gifts" were a part of me that I left there. They were intrinsic elements of my abilities, personality, and soul. I had left them there because that was the area and time where I was shamed the most and realized that I could not fully express or utilize those gifts because they made me target and I already was one.
I asked the Guide in my dream, "did I leave these here because this is where I was the most damaged?" Yes.
I had to reclaim a part of myself in this dream and did so with the utmost care and consideration. Did I still need these gifts? Yes, they are YOURS.
After waking from this dream, I felt a sense of relief I haven't felt in decades. I knew I had work to do in order to fully integrate what I had just found out and what I had thought I no longer needed because I had made it this long without these metaphorical "gifts" so why not keep trudging onward? No. I had to reclaim them for right now, this time that I am living in now would require the re-integration of these lost treasures.
What those gifts are is mine and mine only to know and consider, but I ask you...
What gifts did you have to leave behind to survive? What have you made do with in your life without pieces that are rightfully yours to have? This is a thought experiment that will take time and inner meditation, but it is worth doing.
A lot of us gave up something in young life to survive the expectations of what it means to be accepted by our peers. It may not be one event, it could be several, but at some point every single one of us had a choice to let go of or embrace some aspect of ourselves that was not loved by our immediate surroundings. What so-called benign comment from someone we loved, injured us on a deep level? What facets of our being did we put on ice so that we didn't cause waves in our peer group or among family members? Whatever that may be, find it! Find it and see if it still holds any value to you now. It may be the thing you've been missing or it may be the block that you thought you needed to remove but realize that it wasn't necessary to block in the first place!
Regardless of outcome, the flow is the important part. Find what it is that has kept your river from flowing in the direction you want to go and carefully, with love, remove it or allow it to flow along with you.
Once you do this, you will be able to navigate future twists and turns in the flow of your Divine essence.
Our world likes to artificially dam up naturally flowing change. We do it regularly in all aspects of culture. We don't like to change the course of the river unless we perceive we are the ones controlling it. It goes against natural law and therefore you have effects that aren't so great later on down the line. Life is a river and it runs in the ruts. You can stay on the banks and watch it go by or you can trust that it will take you where you need to go. It doesn't have to be a roaring rapids all the time, but if you trust the flow, you won't get slammed against the rocks or mixed up in the churn at the bottom. Our need to control everything is why we get slammed up against the rocks and plummeted into the churn gasping for air. Allow the essence of your river's flow to take you to places you didn't think you could get too. You won't be sorry, and you will find, eventually, that we are all going to the same place.... the open ocean of Source which is where we all began the journey together.
Thanks for reading.
