Rivers...

This is the Colorado River.  The one that is in Texas.  Yes, I know there are other rivers by that name, but this one is special.  This one is mine.  I claim it.

No, I don't own it, and my claim is an unofficial one as far as anyone else knows, but nevertheless, it's mine.  I have been crossing this river, always on the way to somewhere else, for all of my life. In fact, in making the trip from Houston to Austin, one crosses this river several times - going only one way.  And I have made that trip many times.  Many, many times. The river has so many bends and curves that the road just gives up  and keeps crossing it.

No wonder that we compare so many things to rivers, or describe so many things as rivers.  So many metaphors about life.  So many stories of life-changing events, or discoveries, or travels, or journeys - literal and figurative.  And those are all fair things to do with the idea - the picture of a river.  There is movement - always in an overall direction, though it may make a detour or two along the way.  Yes, I could watch that all  day had I nothing else to do.  Sometimes, that should be the thing to do.  Just as one would watch the waves come in at the beach.  Watch something with the ability to be perpetual without being boring.  There's some reassurance in that, don't you think?  Our world is so fly-by-night, and busy, and over-run with bombardment from so many stimuli that being simple-minded enough to claim a river, and watch it for awhile, and revel in what it does - well, it just seems like a very "right" thing to do.

The good thing is, though, that I will share.  You can claim it too, if you like.