Succumbing to the flow

Roaring Fork Creek/Tad Barney photo

Why is the sound of flowing water so healing? As if anything and everything negative will
 flow right out of me.

It’s a brisk, slightly-less-than-50-degree afternoon on the northern edge of Gatlinburg along
the Roaring Fork Creek. All I want to do is sit and listen, gently let the water lull me wherever
it wants.

Much of the lulling is backwards in time, sparked by a stay in cabins my grandfather
discovered in the late 1960s and where my family has returned.

I feel him here and, also my mother, his daughter. She has always loved these particular
mountains and this specific stream. Even though she knew, as a Quaker, I didn’t observe
sacraments such as baptism, she gently splashed my teen daughters as infants. Secretly, 
it delighted me.

So I am called here. To listen, observe, unload, breathe, remember, let go, find my way, see 
Spirit more clearly and discover my peaceful center.

I don’t suppose it’s any accident that I landed here after a week-and-a-half of healing from a 
necessary, but unexpectedly seismic chiropractic shift.

After weeks of feeling really, really well – to the point of broadcasting that my fibro is no lon-
ger in charge – I waltzed into my practitioner one morning saying I felt my body was ready to 
move that day.

And, boy, was it; however, I was unprepared for my physical reaction. I have subconsciously
and intensely fought to return to the old, stiff patterns. The pain was so overwhelming that
I stopped moving, breathing and retreated into my default of curling in on myself. But I
caught myself. I’m not going there again, ever, I said. If I haven’t learned that lesson in 15
years then there as been no silver lining to this experience.

Some old vestiges are still holding on for dear life, but with a lot of help and wisdom from my 
priate cracker (that’s what Lily used to call him), I am letting my spine unwind from years of 
twisted disease.

And the rush water helps. It serves as a reminder to keep moving, that my life is abundant and
 flowing, that it does have direction; to let nature take its course and surrender to Spirit.

Grace helps me understand that this sacred place of family and faith is very much present in 
this process.

• What qualities does water bring to my life?

• As Ii magine a special or sacred spot, where does it lull me?

• When I relax into it, how is Spirit evident?

• From what must I unwind?

• Where can I witness grace in this process?

forceful,

magnetizing

marching forward

and pulling me

along

yet willingly,

helping me

let go of

the unnecessary,

the useless

and the things

that hold me back

I want to succomb to the flow of

the living water

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