A River Flows To The Sea

Here’s something funny—

So many times I’ve been told I can’t do what I want to do, by so many people, in so many ways. It happens almost every day. And then you might think to yourself, “well, I guess this guy is just really selfish, self-centered, and ignorant.” That’s not true either though, because I do listen: to how plants grow, to how animals live, to how people care and support one another. But I don’t let myself listen to things that don’t make sense to me. And it isn’t an ego-based rejection, it’s a thought of what will make me most free. Free from fear, free from anger, free from control. Oh no, it’s not easy and blissful at all. In fact, doing what I do is the opposite of easy and blissful. No, it’s the hard work. The work that benefits no one else but myself, for now. But I believe in the idea of honing oneself through work like this, whether it’s with others, or alone. And through that honing becoming more fully human, and able to know the answers, and be there for others whether it’s a landscape, a plant, a community, or another person.

If a river wandered into the desert in many little streams it would dry up and disappear. But if it keeps its main course it will flow to the ocean. Poetic, maybe, but in my route through life I’ve found it to be true.

Keep telling me I’m wrong, that I’m taking the wrong course, that I’ll never amount to anything. I don’t care about proving you wrong, because I know it’s not me you’re talking to. You’re speaking to your own fears, of what you think is possible or impossible. I’ll prove one thing: that a human being can remain free and alive through a life, like a river flowing cleanly down through so many things and down to the sea.