On an early summer day, the tour bus made its way to Rock Riverside Park. One of the largest in the Brisbane area, the park provides facilities for recreational activities for all ages. It has about 800 metres of frontage along the Brisbane River where visitors can take a walk, ride a bike, rollerskate, or enjoy barbeque lunch at a picnic table while watching boats and barges go by.
Continuing on to the Brisbane city centre, the scenic waterway offers other opportunities. Kayaking and canoeing are available both during daylight hours – past glass skyscrapers, historic buildings, and old wooden homes – and at night against the glittering city skyline of the lit up city. Boat cruises traverse the river at regular intervals.
Stopping at the City Botanic Gardens on the river’s north bank offers a chance for a peaceful, even meditative break, followed by a picnic lunch beneath mangroves and macadamia trees. The South Bank features alfresco cafes and dining places overlooking the river which cater to a wide variety of tastes and budgets.
Spending time by a river and watching it glide past the natural or manmade environment on its banks, glistening in the sun or reflecting the mood of the sky, can inspire reflections on the nature of the waterway and its surroundings, their parallels with life, as well as spiritual analogies. Here are some that come to mind.
Every river has a tiny beginning at a mountain spring or a lake that has formed from rain or melting snow. Gradually, the small stream becomes a part of something greater as it merges with other streams along the way, and ultimately reaches its destination and empties into a lake, sea or ocean. A river is never the same – every moment is different in its continuing flow from source to destination. Heraclitus (c. 535 c. 475 BCE) correctly observed that you never step into the same river twice.
Along its course and over time, a river is a “witness” to countless scenes and events in its path and on its banks. Upstream this may include groups of thrill seeking rafters in their inflatable boats braving the choppy waters and dodging rocks. A little further down, several hungry bears may be impatiently waiting for the salmon run when thousands of fish swim upstream on their final journey to spawn in the same place where their lives began half a decade before that. Still further along the river’s now peaceful flow, fertile fields, lush meadows with bright flowers, and tall trees swaying in the breeze may flank the banks, with distant hills or mountains on the horizon. Along the way, the stream will have merged with a number of tributaries and swelled in size.
Yet further downstream, several towns and cities with homes, office buildings, factories, recreational parks, and even churches and temples may straddle the river, now several hundred metres wide. People are crossing it over impressive bridges, some on foot, others in cars, buses, trains or trucks. Ships and boats of all shapes and sizes, some carrying passengers, others loaded with goods, can make the river appear almost as crowded as the six lane bridge above it.
Along its course, the river flows over and around obstacles like rocks, smoothing them over time. It carries and redeposits fallen branches, leaves, sediments, and other debris. If pollutants have been poured into the water from an external source or solid rubbish thrown in, they too are carried downstream. Sometimes a river drops down sharply over a cliff, forming a spectacular waterfall – its spray creating a rainbow through the sun’s rays.
The river supports and nourishes life within it – a whole range of aquatic plants and animals, including those of microscopic sizes, as well as creatures that feed on these. It also assists vegetation and wildlife on its banks. In addition, it provides water for drinking and other uses to humans, as well as power to industry. A river can move briskly, but also calmly and peacefully, glistening in the sun and providing refreshment and relaxation for people along its shores. At the other extreme, in one of its angry moods, it can become a raging torrent leaving destruction and death in its path. Yet, even though floods can be devastating, when a river floods and recedes, it leaves behind fine sediments like clay, mud and silt. These deposits create very fertile soil providing rich nutrients to plants. Because of these benefits, flood plains are prime real estate for farmers.
People have often tried to change rivers and riverbanks to suit their needs and even to satisfy their greed. Rivers have been dredged, dammed and re-routed. Riverbanks have also been denuded of trees and other vegetation. Waterways have been ignorantly or selfishly used as waste disposals – showing a gross lack of understanding or respect for the finely balanced natural ecosystems. Much of such human intervention has had negative environmental effects resulting in polluted, dying, or even disappearing rivers with drastic changes to habitats and their organisms. Originally clear waters have become murky with excessive concentrations of pesticides, fertilisers, and other undesirable substances, which cause suffering, sickness and premature death to fish and other aquatic life – and ultimately even move up the food chain to adversely affect humans.
Life as a River{90}
Many a river has inspired poets, playwrights, composers and artists. John Burns{91} referred to the Thames as “liquid history”, a description that fits rivers universally. As a river flows, over time it witnesses events and history unfold both inside the riverbed and along its banks. It is interconnected with its environment as are the human lives in its vicinity interconnected with the river. In fact, ancient civilizations regarded rivers as sacred – a divine gift – and understood their physical and spiritual survival as dependent on the river.
Each of our lives can be seen as an individual river with its unique origin, journey and destination. Every person has his or her own history that they have written and continue to write along the way. As rivers vary in length, our lives do too. We each start like a tiny mountain spring or a small overflowing mountain lake. Regrettably, some don’t get much past this humble beginning. Most of us, however, flow along on our journeys, but don’t know where or how far our estuary or final destination is. As tributaries join a river, so our circle of friends and acquaintances expands beyond our immediate family.
Our experiences are like the scenes and events along the course of a river – both in the riverbed and along the banks. Just like every stretch of the river has a story to tell, so does every year, month, week, day, hour, and even each minute of our life. Like the flow of a river, life’s experiences can change moment by moment – everything is impermanent and will sooner or later pass. That is why living in the present, valuing and being grateful for every special moment, is important, as compared to obsessing with either the past or future.
As the various river ecosystems – vegetation, wildlife, aquatic life, even human civilization – intertwine and influence each other, our lives are intertwined with the lives of others and our environment. Indeed, “no man is an island” as 17th century poet John Donne wrote in his Meditations. Also, quantum physics teaches us that we are all one in essence and our separateness is just an illusion. Therefore all our thoughts, words and actions influence others and vice versa. We can enrich other people’s lives by receiving them, listening to them, and compassionately respecting them. We can also care for nature and other creatures and thereby positively affect the environment. On the other hand, like a polluted river, we can have a negative effect on those around us by mindlessly spreading toxic thoughts, words and emotions. Likewise, thoughtless actions can be destructive to our surroundings.
A river can flow calmly and peacefully, or briskly, even hurtling over a cliff. Our lives can feel the same – sometimes all is flowing smoothly, with only minor obstacles in our paths. By contrast, at other times, life’s events can throw us around roughly, not unlike river rapids – we may feel as if cast into a raging torrent and sinking, or worse still, heading over a cliff. Whether the river of our life is tranquil or turbulent, any and all experiences on our journey can give us insights and teach us lessons – if our minds and hearts are open to them.
Often we are not able to control what happens, but our response and what we make of any particular situation is in our hands. Sometimes, we impulsively react rather than thoughtfully respond and then reap less than positive consequences, making an already unfavourable situation worse. Hopefully, of course, the next time we will have learned from the experience, gained wisdom and compassion, and will deal with a similar challenge better. As a river flows along its riverbed, generally unaffected by what is happening on its banks, we too need not react to others’ thoughts, anger or ill will. Needless to say, learning can also come, often easier if we heed, from the experiences of others.
Each river follows a path from source to destination – it trusts the flow of its current and submits to it. Similarly, to mindfully follow the flow of our life can be the best and easiest way, in contrast to constant struggle fuelled by selfish desires and ambitions. In fact, the continuous desire for more money, power, possessions or status, and the resultant striving, is what keeps us dissatisfied, ungrateful and unhappy. Since God is both our source and destination, we need to keep checking along the way that we are following the path of divine will and guidance and fulfilling our God given calling and purpose.{92}
A river is dependent on its source for its flow and life – it is renewed and restored by its spring, in addition to rain and tributaries along its way. Likewise, we are dependent on our divine source for survival and renewal. Additionally, our bodies have inherent restorative power within them. Finally, we are also nurtured by others along the way – be it family, friends, and sometimes even strangers who cross our path.{93}
Rivers are agents of change within themselves and to their environment. Life, too, will change us along its passage – as a result of our experiences, our personalities change, we learn lessons, acquire wisdom, and become kinder and more compassionate. In turn, we affect our environment and those around us. Hopefully our influence on our surroundings and fellow pilgrims on earth is more life giving than destructive.
All rivers will directly or indirectly reach the ocean – which is where they started from as a part of the natural water cycle. It is evaporation from the sea that forms clouds, which when wind driven over mountain peaks drop down water in the form of rain and snow. Some of this precipitation then gives rise to creeks and rivers, which in turn return to the ocean, thus completing the cycle. As mentioned, our lives have their origin in the immanent Divine – “in him we live and move and have our being”.{94} Our spirit or “soul” came from God and will return to God. So in a way, as the river began in and returns to the ocean, at the end of our earthly journey, we’ll return to and unite with our divine source.{95} Much on the physical plane, including the “life” of a river and our own lives here and now, remains a mystery – and this is even more so for life beyond the grave.
Spiritual Analogies of a River
Rivers and streams, as well as riverside places, figure prominently in the Scriptures – often as metaphors for life and blessings. Without water, life cannot exist for long and fertile areas soon turn into deserts. A tree by the river, in contrast, is green and rich in fruit. It is used as a metaphor for a virtuous person, one who, watered by the living water of the Holy Spirit (another metaphor), also blesses and refreshes those around by the fruits of love, peace, faith and kindness flowing from within.{96}
A cool path along a stream is a symbol of divine care and comfort. A land flowing with streams of water is a blessed land.{97} In the New Testament, a river was sometimes a place of baptism – the baptism symbolizing death of the old self and rising to a new life in God. The river bank was also a place of prayer.{98}
The old and the new Paradise are both associated with a river, fertile trees, and life. The symbolic Garden of Eden was watered by a river and grew trees of all kinds, including the tree of life in the middle. The restored Paradise in the new heavens and earth is said to have the river of life flowing through it and multiple trees of life with a never ending harvest on its banks.{99}
A riverside outing can provide not only recreation and rejuvenation, but upon reflection, also give glimpses into the higher realities of the “water of life” – the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit flows from within, as Jesus promised it would, then through our behaviour we can refresh those we interact with.{100} We can each become like a life giving spring, a fountain offering a cool drink to quench thirst for love and acceptance. Or, like a tree, nourished by a stream, which provides shade from the scorching heat of anger and hate, or supplies luscious fruit to ease the gnawing pain of hunger for purpose and meaning. Each of us in this life will encounter and join with other “rivers” – potentially increasing our effectiveness. And hopefully along the length of our flow, we’ll nourish and deposit good soil for the plants and trees along our banks, thereby helping to minimize the spreading of pollution and destruction.