| The Sea
Accepts All Rivers
Judy Brown
 "The
sea accepts all rivers."
So she said. The phrase
had come to her in meditation.
She passed it on to us
not knowing why.
The sea accepts all rivers.
Of course.
Why shouldn't it?
It wouldn't barricade
itself against the flow
of that which is its source.
It wouldn't grade and judge
Each tributary, choosing some,
rejecting others,
requiring that a stream follow a different course
before it flows into the sea.
It wouldn't close itself to
that which by the means of gravity and river banks
flows naturally into its midst.
I guess the sea
has boundaries
but not where rivers are concerned.
With rivers, it is always open
to the flow,
accepting what comes forth
as if it were
a part of self,
without the possibility
of closing off.
Perhaps the sea has always known
a calm acceptance
of the rivers which renew,
wash, fill, pollute, enrich
and even rearrange it. |
