Just listening to Loreena McKennitt’s The Mummers Ball
Was thinking about a conversation I had with a friend a while back who has a small vineyard and makes a modest amount of wine – in our conversation he told me the key was a hands on approach, no mechanization as in the old ways.
That his grapes responded well to that and besides he wasn’t looking to get rich, his was more of a labor of love. Since I don’t drink I can’t attest to what wine is good or bad but confident he knows what he is talking about and know from personal experience such an approach works well in gardening.
I jokingly said his grapes sounded like Luddites who also resisted change and that led to another topic to discuss.
RIVERS AS METAPHORS AND MIRRORS
Knowing that I like to read people often pass books on to me, sometimes a box full – in one such box years ago was a copy of Siddhartha, a novel by Hermann Hesse.
The story ends with an aged Siddhartha sitting by a river finding the meaning and solace he had sought during his life as he washes it flow by,
Of all that was contained in the book this final scene is the one that made the most lasting impression and has stuck with me over time.
Not that I’m searching for meaning in my life, I have that, but I understand the contemplative nature of sitting by a river, the peace that accompanies it.
Rivers flow much the same as life, and like a river we can either be swept away by it or become part of the flow – I think this being swept away often occurs in the world as it’s come to be.
Issues arise and decisions are made we as individuals have no control over and so we are swept along – some struggle and become overwhelmed drifting into indifference, fear, or even alcohol and substance abuse thinking not of such things as solutions but an escape only to find they create a personal environment more difficult to escape – and sadly at times an environment that leads to a plague visited upon others like Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, drug addicted newborns, or the physical abuse of women and children.
We all need to find a river whether in nature or within ourselves and understand that while we may not be responsible for all that occurs we are responsible for the manner in which we live a conduct ourselves in the day to day.
I believe we all understand life can be tumultuous or calm, what may not be readily understood is the role we play across the spectrum.
A lack of appreciation that leads to assigning responsibility to “they” and “them”.
Some rage through life like a torrent while others take a more measured approach and their’s follows the ebb and flow pausing to reflect on the still waters that run deep seeking a balance that enables them to live life as though they mean it with a greater purpose than the concept of Me.
Better to pause at times and view the river as a mirror thatch lead to introspection and reasoned decisions rather that an relentless headlong always seeking and never finding, never satisfied and always struggling with obstacles of self created flotsam.
This is something of a repost but been on my mind ……..
