Sometimes Life Just Happens

Sometimes Life just happens. Call it the perfect storm, write it off to bad luck, blame it on others...we all have our ways of coping with it, but sometimes "shit happens". After 60 years of living, here's how I see it. Life is like a river and we are, each of us, some of the myriad of things that comprise that river. Life, like the river keeps on flowing, changing...predictable sometimes...unpredictable other times. That's Life. As we travel along, are moved by, are shaped by this river called Life, things can and will happen. We'll smack into unforeseen objects, we'll come up against barriers; we'll get shaped, worn, cradled, caressed, and carried. That's Life. The river that is Life is a given. OUR CHOICE is how we engage with this amazing river, this Life. We have the capacity to react, embrace, reject, swim against the current or with it, join with others on our journey, cling to, drag, down, lift up, help or not, enjoy, suffer, praise or rail against this river - this Life. We can choose to find a side eddy to spend our days away from the main flow, we can anchor ourselves to the bottom refusing to be pulled anywhere or do anything (until that unforeseen 100 year flood tears our anchor away).

As I have traveled this river I have seen more ways of dealing with the river of Life than you can imagine. That's Life. What I have learned about this river is that it consistently flows, changes, mutates from calm waters to turbulent rapids from shallow sandbars to profoundly deep channels; that each coping skill that I develop to navigate this amazing and wonderful world requires me to become skilled, and yet adaptable; capable of holding on, and knowing when to let go; accepting of the challenges, and welcoming of the blessings; and ultimately understanding that the river of Life is not about me, and, at the same time, is all about me. Someday, like all elements of this river, this Life, I will cease to exist as I am today. I will become something else in this river, this ceaseless flowing and shaping and changing world. Nothing is lost to this river of Life. What amazes me is that even as I am so small in the scheme of things, I can impact this world, often times in ways I will never know, and that is true of all of us. For myself, I choose love, a kind word, a thoughtful deed, a caring gesture, choosing forgiveness...my way of navigating this river, this Life.