The River of LifeWritten by Cheryl Perlitz
I’ve always loved awesome majesty of mountains. They are, however, byproduct of rivers that formed them: flowing, adjusting, carving, crashing and gently nurturing land and animals along way. The river carves its way through, and mountains answer as towers of strength. Like river, our lives are forever moving and changing, shaping us as water shapes land it flows through. The water’s FLOW shapes river, shapes land, and defines river’s size along its path. The water reacts to obstacles in its way. It creates pools, channels, and gorges. It also determines habitat and landscape that surrounds it, food sources within it, and animal and plant life that can survive in it. The animals and plants depend on it for life itself. In same way, we flow and adjust, change and contribute along path of life. There is an unseen force driving flow: THE UNDERCURRENT. The undercurrent can be strong and drive flow quickly. Like river, we have a hidden force that drives us. The spirit that drives us can be strong and vibrant; sometimes beautiful, sometimes murky, and sometimes unknown. The RAPIDS result from obstacles beneath surface. We experience turbulence when unexpected changes/obstacles affect us. At times staying afloat seems like an insurmountable task. We struggle to adapt to rapids in our life and find that turbulence becomes part of our life’s flow. WATERFALLS are strong, powerful, one of nature’s greatest hazards and most beautiful phenomena. For us, waterfalls of life interrupt our normal flow with great force and strength. Major life changes throw us into emotional falls, and feelings that are strong, intense and powerful. The waterfall is unpredictable and frightening because we lose control. If we ride waterfall, we can savor feeling that awaits us when we arrive at gentle swirling pools at bottom.
| | The Climbs In Our LivesWritten by Cheryl Perlitz
I grew up climbing mountains. Mountains are beautiful and challenging, majestic and all powerful. They also have lessons to teach us: lessons about life and how to live it. Every mountain has a surprise around corner, an obstacle in path, or a storm brewing minutes away. During every climb you’ll find yourself teetering on a ledge, knowing you could fall, and then rounding bend and seeing a pristine light blue mountain lake nestled in cradling arms of a snow capped peak. You may struggle to take one step at a time, and then be inspired by a mountain goat teetering on ledge above you. Mountain climbing taught me how to deal with unexpected. But, LIFE taught me this: hardest mountains we climb are ones we can’t see. Just when we think we have life figured out and we know where we are going, and how to get there…. something changes: we lose a job, a loved one, our health, a dream, a goal. There is a mountain in our way. “Life is full of mountains to climb. The climbs are challenging and often painful. If we chose to climb, and follow our route with purpose, preparation, persistence, patience and in partnership, those mountains can become vehicles for wonderful new beginnings.” SURVIVING At first we must try to survive … only to survive. Initially change is shocking. Sometimes we react with anger and sometimes denial. We feel sad, terrified, overwhelmed and out of control. We are lost in foothills, and until we are able to become emotionally stable, this is where we need to stay as we attempt to find ourselves again. We must first find our footing so that we can move on and prepare to climb mountain of transition.
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