It has come to my attention that perhaps I should write more often. I always have great ideas at just the point that I have no time! Which on some cosmic level probably means something profound, but in the mundane pursuit of daily life means I don't get much writing done. So, today, I will grab the bull by the keypad and get down to business.
As a result of no longer driving to work, I find I have time to read while I am on BART. Even if riding a bike did nothing else for me, the fact that it has given me back my daily reading time would be enough to keep me pedaling. This week I have been rereading "A River Runs Through It" by Norman Maclean. I would have never guessed that something so beautiful could be written about fly fishing. Nor would I guess that all of the parts of life could be encompassed in such a simple story.
Every time you tell a story, it changes and it is the same when you read a story. Each time it takes on a different tone and you find something else in it. I find, this time, that I am paying a great deal of attention to the words and structure of the story and in doing so, discovered a passage that I had not caught in previous readings-
"But I knew a story had begun, perhaps long ago near the sound of water. And I sensed that ahead I would meet something that would never erode so there would be a sharp turn, deep circles, a deposit, and quietness."
How many times have I just known that something was about to be very different without anything else being terribly out of place? We have all felt that at one time or another- an absolute knowledge that everything is about to change, and like a river crashing through a gorge, there is no stopping it. The one thing that seems to never show in this is the magnitude of what becomes the non-eroding object that redirects the river. What chance encounter or impulse purchase or random book could be that thing that redirects the rest to come?
As I sit here looking at the events around me, it is obvious that we are all in midst of great change. Beyond that, I feel there is something else on the horizon that will redirect the river that is our life- a non-erodible object that will force us to turn and swirl and drop what came before in order to continue downstream.
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4 comments:
ideas ? you are bi-polar my sister.
I have to say, there are many things that have been attributed to me over the years. This is not one of them, but I would be in good company were this true-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_affected_by_bipolar_disorder
I would love to go back to using public transit. I road TARC regularly when I lived in Louisville and also finished some great books on the way to and from work. From time to time, people passing in cars would stop and ask me if I needed a ride. Usually I was wearing a suit or business clothes so perhaps I looked like a lady in distress. I always passed. I truly appreciated just practicing patience and the time to just be with myself. I don't know when bus service will come to the part of town where I live in Flagstaff but it won't be soon enough. Luckily, with the weather improving I have more opportunities to ride my bike.
She Rides A Bike- I sometimes wonder if what is happening to all of us is a big fat lesson in being patient. We have, as a society, lived impatiently and unskillfully for so long that we have forgotten the joys of patience. There is a perception of waste if we are seen doing such a subversive thing as just sit and watch the world go by. Why would you waste time waiting for anything- never mind that half the joy of getting something is knowing that the waiting is about to pay off?
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