Do you ever worry about being a burden? Like, not weighing a friend or loved one down with your blues or dark thoughts, because, doesn’t everyone have a lot to carry right now?

It’s a funny instinct, isn’t it? When we most need to lighten the load by sharing with a friend, we’re the least likely to do it.

That’s what I loved about this post: “You don’t have to arrive at a picture perfect life, before you can know peace. The river is here for you now.”

What did Morgan Harper Nichols actually mean? I don’t know.

I didn’t dig deeper into her post, because this had bounced me off on a journey of my own, down along the driveway, across the slippery road, down to the river, where I sat, on New Year’s Day, feeling kinda heart-heavy, because, I mean, what a ride it’s been, and what a foggy crystal ball it is, and then I thought, as a literal ice-berg floated past, this river has the capacity to carry many things, including my little sorrows. It’s not burdened by them. It can absorb them, and carry them downstream, and they’ll eventually become ocean, become raindrops, become atmosphere, and so, I can offer them to the river without fear of being too much.

Water represents emotion and feelings, in the practices I’ve been exposed to. So this feels as though it speaks not just to the water in my body, but the feelings that flush and flow through it. They too, are more weather pattern than stone monument, especially if I let them flow on through.

So I spoke them out loud, and it felt as if the river was offering some gentle guidance or perspective, and when I stood up and brushed my cold-numbed bum off, I felt lighter. More peaceful.

The river is here for you now. Go say hi.

(Also, as much as a reminder to Self, as a share with you all, friends appreciate being invited to witness your heart in all its colours. It’s not a burden to see the blue.)