When I stand in a river, I can feel the current's force.
It takes will to remain standing. I widen my base and adjust my footing. I engage my core. I meet the resistance. The onrushing water must account for me.
Then something truly magical happens.
I change the river's shape. I find my equilibrium, and the river senses me. It allows for me. Accommodates me. It becomes itself because I become myself.
The onrushing river of circumstances I call my life needs me to shape it. I stand in the river to make my life my own.
When the river and I learn this dance together, the tension we hold between us reminds me I'm alive. I learn to embrace my life. My life returns the embrace to remind me I belong, and the embrace is unconditional.
I can always let go, float downstream, and subject myself to the law of accident.
Or I can stand in the river. Stand for my life, and join the dance.
Happy new year.
Photo credit: Michael Sendbuehler