Isaiah 33:21

The day is calm,
oddly slow and peaceful
as you look down from the bridge
to the river,
broad and slow
below your feet.

You remember, how
when you were younger,
you traveled upriver, seeing
how the each stream
tumbled into the river,

widening it, adding to it’s power,
amazed that the power
was not one of anger or fury
but peace, how widening waters

traveled slowly, yet
with a force not even tides
could quell.

=====================

Isaiah 33:21 reads “The glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams.”    That line has resonated, perhaps because this week as I visit my family , I cross the James River daily. 

Many years ago, I went exploring and tracked the James to it’s headwaters. It’s amazing, when you see the beginning of a river, to understand how it becomes something entirely different as streams and rivers flow into it, each one changing it to something broader and wider.

Which, because my mind wanders, made me think of life, and how, as we age, the many lives and experiences that touch us create a powerful spirit that gains strength, even as our bodies age. How we, like rivers, become a force of spirit where the day to day affects us less than the cumulative spirit that guides us downriver.

Tom

PS: The picture is of Richmond, Va, with the James River in the foreground.

Morning and Evening.