Go with the Flow

Go with the flow. What does that really mean?

From the Urban Dictionary:

- to not attempt to exert a large amount of influence on the course of events, whether a specific series of events or events in general

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them--that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. ~Lao-Tzu

Sometimes I am able to adopt this philosophy as I move through life, and sometimes I am not. Sometimes I feel as if I must take life's hand and guide myself along as quickly as possible. Snags, hiccups, wrong turns are not appreciated. I feel as if I am the river, and I must keep things flowing in a particular direction. Later, I realize I am not the river. I am in the river, and I do not have complete control over the river.

Smile, breath and go slowly. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

For now, I have decided to stretch my arms out over the water and let the river take me where it will. I am floating, drifting, relaxing. I can see the tree branches reaching over the riverbank as if to greet me as I pass. I wave and smile, and sometimes I rub against a leaf from these branches. It feels soft and supple. The ripples on the water vibrate and sing, producing calming sounds that ease my journey. I smell the sweetness of moss as I pass a meadow of grasses and wildflowers. I know not where I am going nor where I will find a landing. I am going with the flow.

copyright © 2012 Michelle A. Potter

Creating Peace

I realize that creating peace is more complex than we often consider it to be. People, cultures, beliefs all play a part in developing peaceful societies and a peaceful world. I think the difficulty comes when we attempt to find agreement. Many want others to behave and believe as they do or there will be no peace. It is not the beliefs that cause the problems. It is the lack of tolerance for varying views, varying beliefs.

If we could only consider love as Shakespeare so eloquently described it in his Sonnet 116.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.  ~William Shakespeare

Peace could then be a normal state of being. With this idea, perhaps love and peace can work beyond boundaries, beyond enemy lines...



copyright © 2012 Michelle A. Potter

A Pause in Time

Have you ever wanted to stop time just for a moment...

to savor,
to rest,
to observe,
to breathe,
to wander?

There are times when I want to live in the space between moments and escape from the daily obligations and deadlines. In the corner beside a second of time, I would open the door and find respite away from any measure of space or season or age. I would wander the corners of my thoughts that I rarely have time to explore, letting notions flow and drape across the width of my brain. Creativity would run free, uninhibited by limits, boundaries. My attention could focus singularly on ideas, rainbows, textures, feelings. The call of discovery is the only voice I would hear.

Clocks slay time...time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life. ~William Faulkner

We often talk of escaping for a day at a spa or for a week on vacation to rest and relax. I wonder if there could be a day, now and then, to escape from responsibility and explore the senses, discover our thoughts, and frolic in freedom and creativity.
copyright © 2012 Michelle A. Potter

Rain, Storms, Life

Outside, I can hear the rain pounding against the windows with a steady beat. Once in a while a drop hits a piece of metal and tings. If I were more of a musical person, I could develop a composition around the various tones made by the raindrops. Sometimes the rain slows, and there is a steady hum of water flowing. If the wind rises, the raindrops are thrust against the house, and I can hear water flowing and gushing down the side of outside walls. Later, the rain stops and there is a lull between rain clouds. The birds become more active and begin to sing. Squirrels race down trees and begin foraging. Branches allow the puddles of rain to drip away and dry.

Is this a metaphor for life? Storms come, they escalate, we struggle to find a way to manage, and then the storms are over. We breath again, we relax. We resume life.

copyright © 2012 Michelle A. Potter