The 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
