Rivers

It’s so wonderful to be alive. Simply great to just be here! This place is…awesome.

I’m in awe when I take a step back and just reflect on the society and social webs that we’ve spun…the friends that I’ve made.

I feel confused when I take a step back and reflect on the conflicts that we’ve concocted amongst ourselves…and the ones I’ve brewed and let under my skin. At some points, it all can seem dumb and trivial.

I feel bonkers when I take a step back to reflect on then notion of emotions.. and the the ones that go through me everyday. Emotions are the most complex things I know of in this world.
How did we get these things, and why do we listen to them? Why don’t we listen to them more? What are they? Whatever they are, they probably gave way to storytelling, to music, to war, and the concept of community itself.

Why in the world did we come up with…cotton candy? How do you explain that from an evolutionary standpoint? Or blockchain…I won’t start….but do we need to put things like travel plans, emojis, and porn on a distributed ledger? We’re funny sometimes.

A friend of mine recently shared a poem from the late John O’Donahue —

I’d like to live my life as a river flows
Carried by the surprise of its own unwinding.

I’ve been drawn to these lines for months. I can’t let these words go. Everyday for me has been an adventure, a saga — and I find myself focusing on the ups of the waves and the thrashes from the current. It’s hard not to I guess.

I rarely find myself pausing and reflecting how far we’ve come as people, and how far I’ve come in my path, regardless of the way our river carries us.

I invite you to take a few seconds today to just reflect on how far you’ve come in the last year and acknowledge the surprises you’ve come across in your own path, acknowledge the winding river-bend we’re currently in, and reflect on just how more winding we get to go through!

pStav