The river rushes by like life in a hurry
Earth weighs me down.
With effort, I move on.
I lived in a condo on the banks of the Manistee River and Manistee Riverwalk, several years past, and I have many fond memories of the river. The Manistee River symbolized manythings to me. Ever-flowing - never letting up, always there - the river was a constant reminder to me not to give up on life. There were times when I was so at one with the river I felt I could walk on it.
Sometimes the wind and rolling water awakened hidden emotions from deep within me. Other times, the water barely moved and lulled me into quiet meditation.
The river is fringed with a river-walk from the east of town to Lake Michigan, and it holds in its keep sea gulls and river traffic, including huge lower-laker ships and fishermen in boats of all sizes, with sounds and activities of life, from which I took strength. The river flows two-hundred miles, from its source into Lake Michigan, close to where I lived.
In my book Sustained by Faith, p. 113-114, I wrote: As I looked out a window over looking the river, I looked toward its entry into Lake Michigan. I saw the full moon sitting on the horizon of the great lake, where the sun usually sets, awaiting its own descent. Moonlight was lighting up the fringes of the spaced-out cirrus clouds, and in violet reflection, is dancing amidst the rolling current on the river just outside my window. The panoramic sky changes moment by moment.
In joyous thoughts, I danced on the river, in the light of the violet moon, so deep into meditation that my body disappears, while I was aware of merging with the moonlit violet reflections dancing upon the river.
- Mary Ann Johnston
Posted on
Friday, October 30, 2009
by Mary Ann Johnston
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