We’ve Known Rivers… and they’ve told us how to parent

August 22, 2009

a river runs through itThe following poem is so full of spirit and wisdom that simply reading it can help us stay connected to our deepest and best Selves as parents.

 

 

 

 

I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the

flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I danced in the Nile when I was old

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln

went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy

bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

 

-Langston Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers 1926

 

So, let’s dedicate today to the one river that flows eternally through the veins of being and non-being, briefly through each human life, flowing from parents to children, and flowing upwards from children to parents.

Namaste, Bruce

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