Life is a River...

I spent this last weekend up in Ontario, Wisconsin, canoeing the Kickapoo River on Saturday. The Kickapoo is a winding, snaking river, full of rocks, deadfalls, and other assorted pitfalls, all with the intent to challenge your skills as you navigate the river... It is a fun river to canoe, whether it's your first experience or fiftieth...

As I was sitting out on the porch of our rented log cabin Saturday night, just reminicing the trip, it occurred to me that life is alot like that river... Despite gravel bars, or deadfalls, or whatever, blocking the river, the river still managed to find its way over, under, or around whatever obstacle it might be. It occurred to me that that's how life is; no matter what obstacles are thrown in our path life continues on. It becomes our task, our job, to overcome the obstacles and continue on in the flow of life.

When we stopped for lunch we put over to the side of the river, tight against a rock face, and I remember how the river continued to flow by, constantly pulling at us to engage "the flow", and it took an effort on our part not to slip back into the current. Life is like that, always engaging us, inviting us to join in. When we decide to remove ourselves life will continue on, it will pass us by, until we re-engage ourselves and enter its flow once more...
Life is a flow, and we can ride with it and experience it in all its glory, or we can remove ourselves and stagnate off to the side, alone. Whatever the obstacle in our path, whatever is hindering you from experiencing the flow, work to overcome it and rejoin us in life... It's worth the effort!
Food for thought...

React or Respond?

I came into work this morning and found a note that an old "friend" called and wanted me to return his call... It was someone I knew for many years through business dealings, but about a year ago he really cheated me in a business transaction. I called many times to see if we could try and rectify the situation, but despite several dozen calls, he would never talk to me. Finally, his bookkeeper told me that he knew I was upset and he wasn't going to talk to me.
So here's this note. My first reaction was that he needs something again so he wants to patch things up. Well, he can call another dozen times if he wants to talk with me. It turns out that that wasn't necessarily my response. Here's the difference: When we react to a person or situation we are allowing external circumstances to control us. When we respond we choose to control our actions and/or feelings. What responding does, in essence, is allow us to live in the solution rather than in the problem. It is an act of emotional maturity, and most always helps the other person to respond in kind. Learn to respond, rather than react, and you will raise the level of the situation.
Now I have a difficult call to make. Food for thought...

My heart...

I ran across this poem, written some four years ago, in my drafts.
While it isn't necessarily relevant today I still thought it was pretty good poetry,
if I do say so myself... So I thought I'd share it...

I believe that love does play with the emotions of my heart
Seldom does it act the way that I believe is smart.
It binds my heart to someone who doesn't really care
Watching while my heart's ripped out, opened and laid bare.

Why does love choose to pierce my heart, why is it my fate
To fall in love again, again with one who won't reciprocate?
Is love so cruel , is life so cold, to enjoy my broken heart?
Is it better to love and lose, or better to never start?

There is no promise of happiness, no guarantee from above
That things will work out wonderfully if I fall in love.
All that promised, all that's sure, is that the chance for pain
Is an overwhelming certainty if I choose to fall in love again.

All I can say to the one I love, "You chose to run away,
I wish you weren't so afraid, and that you chose to stay.
To experience a depth of love that would carry to a new height
To learn how love doesn't have to hurt, how it could be so right".