Going with the Flow

By: Maggie Marshall | Posted in: Connection with Nature | Friday, Nov 20, 2015 - 3:36pm

I wonder how a stream feels when it is going with the flow.  I imagine it depends on what type of stream it is, what type of landscape it is flowing through.  I suppose we feel the same.

If I was stream, what kind of route would I prefer to take? I think it would be a mountain stream, tumbling over rocks that sing to me, swirling in pools of lively, dancing water, greeting all the little creatures there as I pass by. When I slow into quiet pools to rest, I speak with fish and insects and other dwellers or visitors. I languish with the plants and moss-covered rocks, before going on my way.

I never know the route.  It is all an adventure – what is around the next corner?  What creatures might I see on the shore as I pass by? I feel there is a destination and I will get there, but I am not sure exactly what it is.  I just know it is home. A place I need to be.  Whether lake, ocean or larger  river, it is my destiny, like meeting new friends and new experiences.  Being part of a larger whole.

Freedom and excitement.  Passion unleashed.  Racing to the unknown.  Clear and sparkling in the sunlight, gray and turbulent in storms and cloud.  Mingling with the elements, accepting all. Reveling in the joining together – the dance of mystery and life. Joyous reverence.  Gentle touches and riotous force.  Mixing with oxygen, igniting my soul.  Seeing the bounty and the beauty – the relationship to all. I am part of all that is on Earth.

But what if I was in a concrete channel, or gravel?  In straight lines. Intermittent – interrupted flow. Hardness. Constriction. No room to move.  Nothing to explore. Dullness. Depression.  No one to me
et or greet.  No dancing or joy or purpose.  Just guided along a channel to an unknown place. Will it be as bad as th
is one?  Where are all my friends?  Even animals and people don’t often visit the banks. It’s like a rush to get to somewhere else, a desperation to be elsewhere. Not in this gray and boring place.

I’m not clean here either. All the dirt just drifts in, chemicals, pollution, from a human place. No cleaning system. Just dirt along for the ride. So empty. So barren.

Do they really think they are “improving me”? To make me follow a straight and narrow route? To follow the rules of engineering and flood control? Why can’t they learn to live with the intricate and complicated systems of nature?  The beauty, the complexity, the interwoven webs of life?  I would provide much more for them then – food, water to drink, flood control, exploration, relationships, awe, wonder and  beauty. And with all this comes a feeling of love and connection. Who wants to be connected to a concrete channel – it might be too much like their own lives. Straight and narrow – follow the rules.

I weep for humanity and all the inhabitants of this planet. I weep the crystal tears of pure and sunlit water.

What do you feel when you visit different water landscapes? Ocean, lake, river, channel, stream?  Clean or polluted?  Imagine you can connect with these streams in different environments.  What do you feel? I’d love to hear your thoughts.