What, no pictures??? Well, we went tubing down a river- so nope, did not bring the camera! But here's what struck me... There were 11 of us in all -all tied together drifting down the river. My cousin is in town from Germany with his son, whom we stayed with in Germany about 2 months ago. It's been so great because all of the second cousins (the kids) were already comfortably acquainted with each other. Unlike last year where it took a few days for each to try to speak to the other since they do not know each other's language. This trip is great. Mine seem to intuitively understand German all of a sudden and his son is really doing excellent in English.
So anyway, there we were with wild horses on the banks of the river floating along when our first little rapids hit. Suddenly we were all flinging all over the place- I got a rock right in my tailbone leaving a rather impressive bruise, one niece got her back scratched up, we got pushed to the side of the river with bamboo and low tree branches scratching our faces, backs and pulling our hair. Everyone was shouting and screeching but above all the ruckus was laughter. Good hearty, oh, my- I think I may pee- LAUGHTER! After the rapids we hit a pool of still water and all of us began paddling back into the current. In the stillness there was debris and murk in the water and we all wanted to keep on moving. All of us concurred that it would be great if the whole river was one long rapid! The thrill of the ride was well worth the minor injuries!
So I got to thinking...How come I can't approach my entire life like that? Why is it that I'm constantly teased into the notion that "If only..." - The fill in's here are endless... If only I had a certain amount of money in my account, the right hair, my kids behaved this way, I had this contract, etc. THEN I would be completely at peace. Isn't that what many of the avatars through the ages have taught? That stillness and peace is what we're looking for? Then why did none of us want to stay in the still part of the river? Wasn't it the contrast and thrill of the resistance of water on rock that delighted us most?
So, I thought it's good for a little reframe of my daily life. I've heard it said before that, 'out of contrast are born new desires,' - so at least for right now I'm ready to embrace the ride and not wish it away for some sort of imaginary 'peace.' I mean, it's all semantics - because in embracing the chaos I feel more peaceful... So maybe that is the key. Who knows? Certainly not me...
