How can you follow the course of your life if you do not let
it flow?
~Lao-tzu
When I think about being in the flow of life, rivers immediately come to mind. Man creates huge dams to control rivers and hold their powerful waters back. But unless the dams provide a means for at least some of the water to continue flowing, the structures fail. The water eventually creates a path around the dams or bursts right through them.
Life is like a river. Surrender to life's flow and it will carry you over and around obstacles. It will take you through spillways to maneuver around dams. It will flush you out of stagnant pools created by flotsam and debris. When turbulence pulls you under, the water will, in time, shoot you back up to the surface.
Nothing flows on a river without encountering blocks, obstacles or rapids. But most everything eventually reaches the mouth of the river.
So why fight the flow? Why refuse to budge from this one spot in the bend of the river? Why resist inevitable change?
Why not simply relax and go with the flow, and let it reveal the course of my life?
It's a question I ask myself often — usually at times when life feels difficult, I'm struggling, and obstacles rear up in front of me.
I know the answer. When I choose not to go with the flow, it is because my faith and trust in myself to stay the course falters. And that happens when my connection with the Divine waivers.
The solution lies in staying connected with my Source — the power through whose guidance and direction I can co-create the course of my life.
