Like the flowing river

The title of this article "Like the flowing river" is borrowed from a book with this name by Paulo Coelho, who is one of my favorite writers. This article actually emerged out of several discussions with my wife Jyoti, where I began to realize the powerful message which lay in this analogy.
What is the parallel that one can draw from a flowing river & one’s life? Interestingly many aspects emerge;
The beginning of most rivers is in the form of a small stream in some distant mountain. The higher the source, the livelier is the stream just the way children are. The stream will dance along its way jumping & gurgling over rocks without any care. It will take the easiest course available to itself as per the terrain of the land, often having multiple twists & turns along its way. Isn’t that the same for us in our childhood? Irrespective of wealth, location or education, every child is lost in enjoying the present moment and finds joy in the smallest of things. Similarly the child’s early future is shaped with what is made possible within the immediate family & social environment.
Along the way down from the mountains, a stream gets many additions & grows in size and volume to become a small river. This is still fast flowing & has the power to move most things along its path. This is akin to the exuberance of the youth who gain through inputs of parental love, education, peer groups, societal norms & ideologies. Also explains why many of the revolutions across the world involve youth, in fact many times are started by them.
So what is the key message till now? Obviously everyone starts life with many fundamental differences, but as we grow the early inputs we receive have the power of either making a force to reckon with, or conversely impact our very existence. All of us have the opportunity of providing the best quality of inputs to our children. These inputs are not limited to just to the superficial level of food, clothing, toys etc, but encompass the core moral values we instill by example, unstinted (but not blind) parental love, non-critical support, foundation of basic discipline and focus of moving towards goals. Even though good schools, good teachers & extended family play important roles, the pivotal role can be played by parents themselves.
As a river grows, it slows down even more, but still has a purposeful flow. The river might still have additional inputs from other smaller rivers which merge into it. Now the river starts contributing to its surroundings by irrigating the fields, enriching the soil, providing means of transport etc. This is pretty similar to the phase in a person’s life when one’s actions contribute in many ways to others – family, society & the economy. The flow of the river now is like the life force which propels all of us forward. If the flow (life force) is strong, it can change the landscape around itself.
When faced with obstacles, it has the ability to break through them. Imagine a huge landslide which blocks the path of a river. In case of a smaller river with a powerful flow, it will adapt itself to the landslide & find another way around it. When the river is larger, it will plough its way through the fallen rocks & mud and stick to its original course. A river without a flow might just land up abandoning its course & turning into a pond or small lake. How different is it from the way our own lives have shaped up when faced with obstacles?
What drives this flow? It is the inputs (in the form of smaller streams) which the river keeps receiving, many of them might be tens or hundreds of miles upstream. A river cannot have a powerful flow without these inputs which continuously add volumes of water. How different is this from the life force which propels us in our own life? We can add tremendous force in our own life by being open to inputs. These inputs might originate in our early educational years or might come out of what we choose to add to ourselves through books, life experiences, reflection/analysis of our actions & inputs from others. Obviously all of us in conscious or unconscious ways do this in some way or the other. But many times we choose to ignore these critical inputs assuming that we have received all that we need & that it is sufficient to take us forward along the longer journey which lies ahead of us.
This realization could be the start of the process which helps you to add additional life-force & therefore takes your life further than possible now.......like the flowing river.