On the Banks of Our Hearts

We spent a bit of time this afternoon down by the river at the end of our shotgun property. It is my wife’s 46th Birthday and the tradition in our house is that the Birthday Girl gets whatever she wants for the day and gets out of all chores and responsibilities.

It was a such a warm and lovely day, abnormally warm for early February…

73 degrees, perfectly calm, and not a (real) cloud in sight.

We hadn’t been down by the river since last summer and had almost forgotten about the massive rains (and subsequent floods) that raised the river to levels not seen here in a very long time during our monsoons. There were places the river had left it’s banks along our little valley and it was all the talk of the community.

And then we simply forgot.

That is, until we walked down to the banks and saw everything had changed. Massive boulders had been moved, fallen trees that hadn’t moved in year washed away, swimming/fishing holes erased, sand bars beyond heights we could have imagined, and trees and willows along the banks all laying on their sides.

Wild and humbling.

Luckily, the house we caretake sits at the top of the property and just above the “flood plain”, but it does give pause for thought as our microclimates continue to change beyond the rains filling the rivers that flow through our back yards,.

But today was for relaxing and sitting in sunspots…

Exploring the banks and hunting for rocks…

Fishing and reflecting.

And so I did.

I brought my (brand new) Sudoku book with me to have a try at the brain puzzles I loved so much years ago but had left behind. I picked it out specifically because of the beautiful hummingbird on the front.

See, I lost a young cousin five years ago this month to a tragic accident and hummingbirds were very dear to her. I still grieve her loss and miss her dearly so I carry her forward with me in small ways like stickers in my journal and puzzle books with pretty covers.

And so, as I sat by the river with the sun on my back, I worked on puzzles and listened to the water…

I contemplated the passage of time and the strength of the water…

I reflected on the beauty of simple moments and the (sometimes) brutal forces of Nature…

I considered how much has changed in my life and the world at large over the last 5 days/weeks/months/years…

How some of that change is so very visible, like the banks of the river…

And how some of that change is carried deep within the banks of our hearts.

Wild. And humbling.

Onward,

Melissa