“The water that I give will turn into a spring inside welling up.” John 4:14

Water, is an ample analogy for our spiritual life. A well spring of water can renew and replenish our soul yet, at other times the spring may seem almost dry. The people we intersect with in life help us with our soul work. We all enjoy being with people who raise our energy. Yet, our most challenging encounters can be our greatest teachers because they touch our deepest wounds that need and long for healing.

Personally, I am seeing how my attachments and the expectations of others can have a stifling effect.  The difficult task at hand is not to look outside myself to the illusionary cause of pain but to be responsible and look within with honesty and compassion.

I know my ego is cunning, relentless and a master trickster. M. Williamson suggests that pain arises not when we experience hurt but when we close our heart. Love asks so much more of us. Here is where I get stuck, where the sword enters my heart every time…when I try to show loyalty but instead I hold on too tightly to that, which is dear to me.

Yet the river shows us another way; of trusting in the natural unfolding. When we are still enough to listen to the beat of our heart, the universe will provide a divine moment of grace and answer our prayer. The river teaches us to let go of fear and to free others from our grasp as we free ourselves.

All love is eternal. Being present to what arises with acceptance, forgiveness and love is a humbling endeavor.  

‘The good water’ collecting in pools, moving to

another place

rushing in streams

apparent, hidden

a great flow and a small damp

place almost dry

but

deepening for

another time

the enduring river

~By Mother St. John Fontbonne C.S.J. (1759-1843)

Contributed by Liz Sorensen Wessel

Photo: The Old Jelly Mill, Dumerston, Vermont, 2010 by  my friend, Brenda Michelle Carr

Poem: Shared by Sister Madeleva C.S.J.