Life, an eternal flowing

While sitting in the upper room of a lovely cafe' overlooking the waterfront, I observe a wide stream merging into the bay. The current is constant, neither too fast, not too slow. The words uttered by the boatman to Herman Hesse's Siddharta come to my mind : "The river taught me wisdom." I wonder what these words really mean: How can the eternally flowing water teach wisdom? Maybe it invites me - and you - to reflect upon our lives, on how they flow... flow... flow... with no possibility of stopping them even for an instant, nor having them flow back even a few inches. Everything goes forward, moves ahead and we can't but ALLOW it (Here we go again!) because life's movement is not for us to decide. We can only choose HOW to move, HOW to "go with the flow". Here are some possible choices: We might try to to stop it - only to be dragged away by the strength of the current. We may try to swim without knowing how, so we'll have a hard time staying afloat. We may choose to be carried by someone else, but in so doing we miss the thrill of the swim. Some fools might even try to swim "against" the current and they end up... who knows where (surely not where they had planned of going!). BUT we can also decide to swim "WITH the flow", i.e. let ourselves move like that seagull I see drifting in the air. In this way, we will hopefully (and peacefully) reach the ocean.