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January 2021  River of Life

1/15/2021

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Many have written of the Ages of Man, from Shakespeare's soliloquy in As You Like It  to the psychologist Erik Erikson's 7 steps of human development. I have decided to render these into a river of life. As a river is born from a spring or glacier, just a trickle, that grows wider and deeper with time and faces periods of calm and turbulence, life  flows into a calmer, slower existence as it approaches the final All, the unknown, large deep expanse that water calls the Ocean and we call  Death. Take a ride down the river and enjoy the stops along the way.  The Ocean awaits some day.but not before you have partaken of the pleasures afforded by each stage of the journey along the River of Life.
Most of the images are of the Rhein River, taken from Flik via Weebly. (The photos are without names or titles, so I can't vouch for their accuracy or cite the source.Non are to to be reposted or altered.)

​Water-Life

PictureThe Alps where the Rhine River begins

Silent still glacier
Frozen ice
Warms, melts, awakens
Flows downward.
We Are

All is ever changing,
But nought is ever lost.
We are what was and will be,
A wondrous present moment,
Changeless changing beings.
Gaily gurgling brook
Bubbles down
Bird song, buzzing bees
On the breeze.

Tumbles into pond
A brief rest.
Dragonfly flits by
Shaded banks.

Merges with other
Waters, deep,
Churns into rapids, 
Turbulence.

Picture
The Rhine River in Switzerland
Flows into calm lake,
Still waters,
Banked by fishermen,
Pleasure boats.
Picture
Lake Konstanz
Flows out into rich
Delta, feeds
Salmon, herons, fish
​And farms.
Picture
Rotterdam where the Rhine flows into the North Sea.
Widens, slows to crawl
Meets salt tide
Melds with the ocean
Becomes one.

Ocean, wide and deep
Strange life forms
End and Beginning
​The All.

​MW


The Now

There is no yesterday.
There is no tomorrow.
There is no past.
There is no future.

There is no future
On the horizon.
There is no past
In today's wake.

These are but concepts
Not realities.
Theres but a Now,
A fleeting Now!


The Ebb of Time

As sunset paces and shadows grow,
And as din fades and silence spreads,
My feelings fly and all thoughts falter,
My eyelids weary and slumber beckons.

Day's nigh spent and life's in ebb,
But all's not over, not yet done,
My sands of time, though swirling fast,
Have yet to leave my hourglass bare.

Though weary in body, I'm still active,
Though frayed in emotions, I still feel,
And my mind's still in command.
For that, my smile of gratitude!


Time and Change

Time does not flow!
It does not come
And it does not go.
Change is perceived
And time is conceived.
Tine is a concept,
​And change, a reality!

​-JM
Epigrams  by JM

To decide where you're going,
Decide where you've been.

​To ignore the past is to deprive the present.

To indulge too much in the present is to jeopardize the future.

The future is but more of the past.

​Life has no U turns.




River of Time

Time is a relentless river,
Flowing one direction only,
Slow trickle then fast and faster,
Rushing down life's steep mountainside,
Rapids followed by quiet pools,
Rushing now past busy cities,
Through dense forests, wide open plains,
Always downward.
Widening, slowing,
As it reaches the
Mysterious unland,
Deep unknown ocean,
Foreign to us until
We experience it
In body and soul.

​-MW
Can you identify the seven stages of human life in the river's flow?
Píccola says: I know no seasonal time, no calendar time. I only know the pattern of daily life. Meal time, nap time, couch time, bedtime, punctured by periods of "Do you need to go out?"
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Photos used under Creative Commons from Eric Kilby, tracie7779, USFWS Mountain Prairie, Denis Bourez, jinxmcc, Japanese beauty, voyager2014, Kirt Edblom, nevil zaveri (thank you for 15+M views:), kennethkonica, FaceMePLS, Marianne Serra, irio.jyske, 270862, NASA Hubble, steviep187, Keith Laverack, corsi photo, Howard J Duncan, Luna sin estrellas, Lynda W1, bvi4092, John Brighenti, Kecko, Cambridge Cat, Alexxx1979, ashwin kumar, vastateparksstaff, Marian Elizabeth May, sussexbirder, ell brown, David Meurin, Rod Raglin, Swallowtail Garden Seeds, A_Peach, timo_w2s, acryptozoo, NASA Hubble