A Winding River

Welcome to a new year, my friends.
A new beginning with new challenges, opportunities, windows, and doors.

Yet, we step with the same feet—sometimes forward, sometimes backward, sometimes a rumba, sometimes a stumble which we dare turn into a dance.

What I’m saying is: You’re welcome here. Here, in this moment and this life, to bring and to be whatever you need at this particular turn of the page.

And the pages are turning, this I promise you.

As for me, I’m beginning anew by recommitting to this practice of writing and sharing thoughts, wisdoms, insights, and moments that have made their imprint on me, with a hope that they may ripple accordingly within you.

This time, biweekly.
(thanks, Alfred)

So, Thank You for being here.
And for turning the page with me.

This Week’s Edition

A theme that has come up in conversation more times than I can count is the directionality of our lives and the pace with which we move toward and through especially significant moments and milestones.

I was once blessed enough to be gifted the presence of a man I came to love as an adopted grandfather: Paul.

Paul beautifully embodied the graceful acceptance of approaching life as a winding river rather than a fervent outpouring into whatever greater body of water lay waiting.

“A rushing river often erodes the ecology around it,” he’d say, in his spectacularly scientific and simultaneously reassuring voice.

“But look to a river that winds its way through the countryside. It burgeons with life, providing nutrients from banks near and far, making the essential ingredients of life more accessible to the many beings who visit its shores.”

Too often in life, we aim to be the rushing river. Well-intentioned, we wish to move from point A to point B as quickly and efficiently as possible. The messages that reinforce this are abundant all around us.

And though there certainly can be times that call for immediate action and persistence, inhabiting this mode as a constant way of living can just as certainly wear us out—eroding our internal and external ecologies. Rarely, is this sustainable.

What is sustainable, however, is embracing the natural curvature that occurs as we move from plains to plants, from forests of fathoming to fields of reaping opportunity, making meaning in moments of multifaceted learning as we wade our way to the great, grand ocean from which we first arose and to which we’ll all return.

Direction matters, no doubt. Intention, clarity of aim, the skillful harnessing of hope. All of these guide our movement.

Yet water will only allow itself to be controlled to such an extent before any further exertion of control will inevitably lead to collapse.

And so, we practice embodying the winding way, the wayward path that reveals ever more to our earnest hearts, our eager minds, and our learning souls.

We practice taking the long way home.
Not always, but sometimes.

As Paul would say, “It tends to make for a more interesting story to tell just before you go.”

Invitations for Reflection

• As you look back upon the year that just closed, where were you winding? Where did you rush? When did it serve you, and what have you learned?

• If you were to look ahead to the year before you as a winding river, how might you design its curves, basins, and shores? What moments or experiences might you wish for yourself, and most importantly, why?

As you practice, please jot down your thoughts and experiences. And as always, feel free to share your reflections directly with me. I’d love to hear what resonates for you.

Happy to be winding alongside you,

If you’re enjoying Weaving Wisdoms, please consider sharing it with someone you feel might enjoy it as well.