When you realize life isn’t me and you living on a dusty planet fighting for resources to survive but rather it’s a stream. We’re all in the stream. Saturated by the stream. We’re so one with the stream that we cant always tell were we end and it starts. Its life and its all around us, carrying us in a direction. If the stream is cold, we’re cold. If the stream is refreshing, we’re refreshed. If we get dumped into a river then we find ourselves moving faster. Maybe even bumping up against others in the river. We see some who have built a life raft – and we want that. We might even forget to be happy for them in their life raft because we want that. The more we want it – the more they want us to stay away from their life raft for fear we’ll take it from them. This is how life goes, like a stream. Some get stuck in a beaver damn, blocked so they can’t move forward. Maybe they are content to watch life pass them by from the edge of the stream, they become complacent while others make their way to larger rivers and oceans. And the seemingly smart, maybe wealthy or just plane lucky ones – they find a raft or maybe even a yacht to sail away in.
I have a friend who was being washed down this stream of life, being tossed and turned – she was so aware of herself as one with the water that she failed to realize she could stand up and walk. She was letting the water in this stream come up around her face and drown her when the water was only 2 feet deep in her stream of life. Getting up out of the stream and walking is how we must each learn to find our ground. To stand up and direct our own lives. We all learn this and we walk, usually deeper and deeper into stronger currents and bigger rivers until one day we can’t touch the bottom anymore and then we enter a new phase of life, one where there is no bottom and we become swimmers. My friend however had never walked. She started out swimming. Steiner says learning to swim in the energetic steam of life is the 2nd gateway or as he calls it the water test on the path to enlightment.
My friend is psychic, she channels other beings, she’s helped dead souls cross over and begin their journey after death. She sees things, dreams things and knows things. For her enlightment is coming from another direction. She started out swimming and is learning to stand up and walk. When she gets to the river she’ll only be ready if she builds her leg muscle strength. If one lets life carry them downstream drowning they won’t have the strength to swim and kick when they meet the force of the river. She is a wonderful guide of the spiritual realm but her work in this life is to stay grounded so she can hold space for others. We can’t be of service if we are drowning. We cant be of service if our physical feeling of hot cold or refreshed is dictated by the collective consciousness of the stream. We have to generate our own heat and contentment.
Becoming an observer of the stream, recognizing our symbiotic relationship to the stream is how we start to wake up to our own power, not as a separate being who is fighting for resources and not as a victim of the stream being carried away but as a conscious being who is part of the stream of life and capable of walking, breaking through barriers and collecting enough drift wood to build a raft.
Many times my friend would say, it must not be meant to be. That girl stole my shift at work, I guess the universe has something else for me. Yes, that may be true or maybe the universe is begging you to stand up and use your legs because what lies ahead is a bigger stream and a faster river and an ocean of abundance that you need to have the muscles to navigate.
My perspective of life as a flow has shown me that everything happens for a reason – but not all reasons are for our highest good. If you’ve ever watched a stream for a period of time, you’ll see that the current will shift debris at the edge which will cause a flow shift or a narrowing of the flow. Things become dislodged and new water falls are created. Stuff falls in and drifts downstream. Life is like that. Its a stream. Don’t let it drown you. Walk when you can. Help others. Don’t take someone else’s raft – build your own. Don’t hang out for too long stuck in a beaver dam. Use that debris to build your paddle and get back in the stream.
Know that if you were born underwater, drowning, maybe even with no legs – that’s just because of the stream you were in before you woke up in this incarnation. Same stream – new body, personality and name. We’re born where we left off. If others are ahead of you – its because they got further in the stream of life in their past life. Don’t waste your time believing its un-fair. Thoughts of how unfair your position in life is comes from the part of you that thinks this life is all there is – the limited perception of your animal self fighting for survival on a static earth. If others are ahead of you – it means they worked harder than you in their past incarnation – now its your turn to do the work and navigate the waters of life. Until we learn to navigate the stream and join the ocean – we’ll keep traveling the stream of life – lifetime after lifetime.
When you watch a child play in a stream – you’ll see them delight in creating damns or breaking them open to allow water to travel new paths that were closed before. If you decide to be a part of the shift, to forge your own path – remember to delight in the outcome, wherever it takes you. Choose how to navigate your way – don’t become so comfortable in the stream that you cease to realize your own power. Remember, when the turbulence ends – you are free to move about the cabin. When you get to the ocean – look for me, I’ll be the one on the tropical island waiting for you with a Mai-tai in hand.
