Flowing River

There are times to just letting go and go with the flow can be a life saver.  As a young teen, I had a flowing river that saved me.  Or a least that’s what it seemed like.  At that time in my life, there were damaging events occurring in my family. Times were so hard in my family, that at one point, I decided to commit suicide.  (I took an overdose of aspirins, thinking that it would do me in  – I didn’t know at the time that it’s really hard to kill yourself with aspirins.) 

Then I discovered a wonderful tree. It was a huge tree with an enormous branch that stuck out over a large, slow moving river – the Maumee River.  When times would get hard, I would climb up that tree and shimmy out on the branch. I would sit there for hours, with my feet dangling, over the golden brown river as it flowed beneath me. It was hypnotic.  It seemed to me, as I watched the continuing movement of the water, that I didn’t need to hold onto the challenges of my life. I could let them go. I used to imagine that everything that was a challenge in my life  being tossed into the river and just flowing away.  It felt soothing and healing.

Every time I climbed down out of the tree, I felt renewed and filled with strength and courage to go forward.  Simply letting go and entering the flown can be healing on so many levels.