The River

Going through life is much like making your way down a river on a small raft and being unable to stop anywhere to rest along the way. Any repairs you need to make need to be made gradually, whilst the raft is still moving.

You can't control the river: sometimes it's calm, sometimes it's turbulent; sometimes it's stable, sometimes it takes unpredictable turns. You can't control what happens to the raft, and one day, the raft will degrade and eventually fall apart, its pieces continuing to float down the river. You can't always control where the raft is going (because you can't control the river), and even when you can, your control is limited. And sometimes, it's better not to control the raft at all, simply letting it do what it needs to do, gently guiding it only when necessary to move the raft somewhere favourable or to avoid being hurled somewhere less favourable. 

During your time on the river, you'll meet many others along the way, each on their own rafts, each raft unique in its own way. Some will help you, some will hinder you; others will simply ignore you. Some will join you for a time, but cannot remain with you forever. Some will impact you so powerfully, so profoundly, so meaningfully, that their presence will linger long after you've parted ways along the river. If you're lucky, the effect of their ongoing presence in your heart and mind will help you to more wisely guide the trajectory of your raft further down the river. 

Try to remember that just as you originally came to the river from somewhere, and just as you're trying to make your way along the river without knowing exactly what you're doing or where you're going, everyone else is too. Absolutely everyone. We might be on different rafts, but we're all in the same boat, and we're all floating down the same river. 

The river is unspeakably beautiful, but deep down, we feel the terror and dread of wading into a river that's invariably leading us towards oblivion. We believe different things about precisely what awaits us at the edge of oblivion, but none of us knows for certain. And that's why we need each other. That's why need to be kind to each other. That's why we need to spend more time compassionately guiding each other in our respective journeys along the river.

Carl Legault 2018