The Journal Archives – Not the Same River

From my journal – September 1, 1997:
I think I’ve been avoiding writing on this page – starting a new book of my life.  I guess I was hoping I could time it right, so it felt like I was entering a new chapter of my life.  But life doesn’t work like that – at least not mine.  I don’t suddenly wake up one morning and watch all the pieces fall into place.  I don’t wake up one morning and watch everything fall apart.  It’s more like a river, a stream, always moving, but never quite the same.  Each corner, each bend holds something new – a challenge, a lull, a pool, a storm, a tide, a waterfall, a twig, a branch, a rapid, calm…

 

You cannot step into the same river twice.

-Heraclitus

And today:
That was 13 ½ years ago.  I haven’t read those words for a long time.  Strange to read my own writing from years past – years full of change and growth, full of falling apart and falling into place, and so on, and so on.  The river analogy is one which I continue returning to.  It just works.  Life – time and matter – are continuously moving and we are in that stream, either moving with it or against it, or temporarily at rest, while it moves around us.  I’ve experienced the forward motion, the backward motion, and the unmoving states.  And these past reflections on life offer me, now, a view of the waters I’ve traversed, my methods/approach on the journey, and what I have learned thus far.

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