Frankly my dear, I don't river dam....

Sometimes, you want to give someone a hug because you know they need it....and other times, you want to give a hug because you know that you need it.  Either way - everybody wins as long as both hearts and sets of arms are open. 

Or as a beautiful Indian Hindu Guru says, "In this universe it is love that binds everything together. Love is the very foundation, beauty and fulfillment of life." Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi Devi).

How right she is.  Of course she's right, because I mean, what else is there?  What else can there be? The answer is "nothing", but even those who deep inside know the answer, do not live it.   So many believe life isn't successful without "things".  Cars, houses, status, titles, the exclusive club, the "right" circle of friends, clothes, wars, political ideals.... it seems we are judged for the very most unimportant things imaginable - yet the things with the most importance placed on them.  Worse, we judge ourselves in this same way.

I like to think of life and myself being as a river, and also know that as the choice to "be the river" exists, so must the choice to "be the dam."  The analogy is easy here, and simple.  Most things are simple - it is just that we as human beings do our best trying to complicate them.  The RIVER is a fluid, free flowing, ever changing, adaptive source of energy and life and sustenance.  It carries with it countless life in the form of fish, plants, reptiles, algae, plankton, minerals...and nourishes life through hydration of animal bodies and plant life.  Did you know that there are more plants and animals found in salt and fresh water than on land?  You did. You may have just forgotten. 

The river, then is love.  The river is you. The river is me. The river is choice.

Oh, and the DAM?  Well, while the dam can serve a purpose, and does serve a positive purpose in some cases - for pure metaphorical argument here I will point out that its very definition is that it is "a barrier" for water.  A place for impoundment or containment.  The downside is that it can lead to stagnation.  Disease.  A breeding ground for the stoppage of growth that inhibits the natural flow of the river and the ability to continue along nourishing everything in its path.  Apply these terms to love and you can get a very different perspective.  As soon as you try to impound or contain love, a barrier is effectively thrown into the mix and stagnation begins.  Many live their whole lives this way. I might have once.  I won't again. I'm still learning how to figure this out.  I think I am on my way.

This may sound familiar to you as well.  Have you found yourself flowing happily along like a river only to catch yourself, and then CHECK yourself and for reasons maybe you can't even fathom - find yourself building a dam to stop your flow? Perhaps to keep yourself from continuing on what may be an unforseen or even unconventional path.   Danger.  The unknown?  The "outside the cul de sac" thinking that might be seen as heresy? The seemingly instinctive desire to be seen as "normal" and do what is expected of you? 

The dam represents safety. Security.  Containment.  But can that be a barrier?  An impediment to yearning, growth, experience?  To exposure....giving of oneself all that one can and in return - getting back so much more in return?  Love? Back to love.  Yes, it does always come back to love.

I want to love like a river. To be loved like a river.  To flow and mold to some shapes while carving out others.  To carry with me the diluted memories of a past that has shaped me while flushing out the toxins that might keep me from trusting or believing or giving or really living.  To nourish myself and nourish another.  To experience togetherness while retaining the ability to change.  To be one, but also be two.  To drift slowly, steadily, sleepily in summer night dreams full of promise and hope...to meet at the rivermouth with a kindred soul river...a meeting which causes turbulence stirring up the rapids and passions of the heart that together carve through rocks and "barriers", cul de sacs, unknowns, dangers, fears, hesitations, and unfulfilled destinies.  To be able to accept the opposite flow of my kindred river spirit and form an alliance that we define ourselves.  And in doing so, find that this brings peace, and nourishes love, and fulfills the wishes of a thousand genies trapped under heavy desert sand in old dry lamps who find themselves enraptured when their soul awakens to the sound of the river.