Rivers

Sometimes I feel like a river
traveling to join again with the sea,
but along the way there is so much.
I pass through a desert, and I want to share
so that the desert may grow green and bloom,
but I can affect only a little of it
and only for a little while.

I pass over the rocky cliffs
of the problems of those I love.
I feel their pain, but I can not smooth the way.
The pain is not mine, nor does it ultimately matter
but still it hurts, not being able to make
their way a little easier with the knowledge
that this too will pass.

Sometimes I become a very shallow river
and fear that I may dry up and never make it home.
Those times, I need to withdraw within my banks
and remember that the floods will come again.
This life goes on until it is over,
just as the river goes on until it joins another,
then on again, growing, learning
and searching for it's ultimate self.

The events along the course of the river
all serve to change, refine and purify it.
As such, they are only temporary
and should be accepted with tranquility.
The problems arise when the river wants to share
it's destiny with those it meets along the way.
There are few traveling in the same direction
and rivers seldom travel with other rivers.

There is great peace in accepting your course,
trying to nurture those you touch along the way,
but there is also great frustration in
not being able to share that peace with others.
My course may change, I may grow wider, narrower,
deeper, or shallower, but always I am still the river
traveling to the next stage of development.