Day 274: Back and Forth Down the River

I think about life as a metaphor of a river. There is always a flow and it’s nearly impossible to paddle backward. We ride the raft we make ourselves. We build our oars and navigate the path by hand. As a road, there are forks in the river. There are downed logs and rocks and boulders. And depending on where we were launched from, some rivers are easier to navigate than others.

There are also a lot of sayings and quotes about looking at the past and future. Off the top of my head, I think they go something like this: if you look too much in the past then you will become sad; if you plan too much for the future you will become anxious. The key is to stay present as much as possible. Those work for the river too. If we are looking behind us, wondering about the fork we didn’t take then we will just be sad. There is no going back upriver to be able to take the other fork. And if we are constantly planning to paddle one way or another far ahead down the river when we have no idea what that part of the river looks like then we will become anxious because the future almost never happens as we predict.

So, the only thing we can do is paddle as the river takes us. It’s nice to reinforce our rafts for safety and ease. It’s nice to refine our paddle so we don’t get too swept up by the currents. No matter what we try to do or where we try to go we are still sitting on our raft with our own paddle. It is something we can never escape. Sure, there are people that help along the way: throwing you some rations when you’re hungry or a life vest when you’re close to falling off. Parents help for the first several years of our lives, and if they do a good job they don’t have to paddle for too long.

I’m not really sure where I was going with this, but I was just thinking about the past and future. I was thinking about how limited our mind truly is moment to moment. We really only focus on a few keys elements of our lives each day. We prioritize what is important. It is an essential survival skill. But when our focus drifts too far behind us or in front, we lose sight of the rocks and rapids that are just ahead. It’s important to use the past to learn from our mistakes and it’s important to plan long term so that we can make small strides now for the bigger goal. But sitting in those stages — letting the mind wander into the dreams of yesterday and tomorrow — limits the possibilities of what we can see in front of our nose. Because what is directly in front of us is the only real decision we ever make.