river that comes toward us from an unseen place, but our feelings as well. It is not only the earth that shifts and slides as an escarpment is being born, but our hearts as well. We are, as John Donne proclaimed, pieces of the whole.
May the poems and the exercises that follow lead you to a place of wonder, and awe, and radical amazement—a place that lulls you into union with our Imaginative Father and all that He has summoned from His WORD.
1
Poem
“River Bending”
We are not here
long enough
to watch the river
change her shape.
But she does.
I have felt it.
We can see her swell
and dry, but we do
not get to see her
curl and cut and
grow old. She is an
old thing. She goes
back a thousand,
thousand years.
We cannot see all the
changes, but we can
feel them. They are
in there.
Discussion
The natural world or creation may often bear witness to many more things than we are able to. Creation has seen everything that has happened. The rivers have been around so long that they have seen struggles we have had upon this land. They have seen the overthrowing of the Indian nations, and the battles against the Crown, the war that divided the states against each other, and the pioneering of outer space.
Think of all that has gone on from the dawn of time, from the beginning of creation. There are members of the natural world who have seen things of which we can only dream. This should change how we view ourselves in relation to time, and space. We have been here for only a short time. We have seen only a fraction of history unfold.
There are people in our lives who may also have a broader and more complete view of time and space. This is not only because of the number of their days here on this earth. It is also because of the number and types of experiences they have had while here on this earth.
What this gets at is that no man is an island. We need others to make sense out of the “whole picture of life”. Pieces of how life is may not be at our disposal to understand, interpret, or even postulate. Pieces of life’s history are only known to the ancient ones. Those ancient ones are the mountains, the trees, and the rivers.
We depend on geological records to help us see what has happened on the earth through time. We check for fissures and fossils to help us understand what the earth was like thousands of years ago. We look for petrification and erosion to mark time.
We need to depend on human elders to help us interpret the flow of history. We need older citizens to understand that the social enormity of the Great Depression was not just financial, but ethical, and spiritual, too. They need to tell us how it sapped peoples’ ability to make good decisions and hold out for hope.
A river changes shape over time. Erosion and flooding alter the course of her banks. Rivers grow from side-winding snake-like shapes to straightened shortcuts that bypass the turns of time. Rivers meander and overflow. The changes all take place over time and are the result of forces imposed on the river. That is not so different from how we are changed and become changed ourselves.
Some days we are willing to go through the winding and ambling nature of life. We are unafraid to meander and side-wind from one phase to the next. Taking twists, turns, and lengthy forays does not bother us. However, there are other times in life when we want a shortcut. We will take a straight, direct, and overpowering direction in order to get from “a” to “b”. We over flow our banks and dissect the normal flow of life and change.
When you see a river from above you often are able to see the riverbeds that have been there in the past. You can see how in the glacial changes of time the river was much larger or had a different shape and course. All of this comes from having a vantage point, a place to see from—to interpret from—that allows you a broad view. Vantage points are revealing.
Standing on hills, or bridges, or mountains, above the terrain, gives us an inner feeling of vision and fullness. Many times, we may have a startling revelation of how a river really flows when we see it from a higher vantage point. We may say, “I never knew those two villages were so close before.” Or, “It is no wonder that place floods, it is a perfect spot for a rushing river to shortcut its winding banks.” Or, “Look, you can see where the loops of the side-winding have built up with silt over the years of flooding.”
There are times in our lives when we feel as if we have arrived at a vantage point. We find some small vision into how our lives have been that seems to unfold countless maps of meaning—and we suddenly make sense out of something we could not grasp. When we grasp it, we can feel it in our center in a way that only makes sense when we think of viewing some natural marvel. This revelation becomes awe-inspiring.
The feelings we get at these moments of revelation are felt in the center of the chest. We connect with something larger than ourselves in such a way as to understand it in our head, but feel it viscerally in our chests and in our guts.
When we begin to take these lessons away from creation, we begin to recognize how it is truly a partner with us in this life. It is not necessarily something we are here to rail against or whip into shape. Nature is a valuable extension of our own life—a piece of the whole.
It is important for people to be able to plug into these larger and somewhat expansive feelings. The feelings that come from standing at the Grand Canyon or on a vantage point viewing a river. It opens in us a perspective that reminds us of our place in the whole. It also opens in us a silence that reveres. Standing in wonder at the grandeur of life and the Creator allows us to expand beyond the boundaries of our daily self.
Gleanings
Pearls of Wisdom we have found in this poem:
❖ Time changes things
❖ Seeking a vantage point can help us understand
❖ We can feel change as well as know it
❖ Change alters us in many ways
❖ There is an inner wisdom that comes from aging
and changing over time
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