Rivers of Peace — Peace for the Rivers

My new friend Carol is the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper. Her job is to be the voice of the River. At last, we’re admitting that this planet is a living entity and the soil and the water need to be tenderly cared for. Hurrah.

Carol and I were at lunch the other day, and she lent me a book Blue Mind by Wallace J. Nichols. It’s amazing. It has a long subtitle, which I can’t remember but It talks about how our brains and therefore bodies and emotions react to water. Of course I love it!

So, Carol leaves me thinking a lot about our Rivers (and I’m preparing for our community’s ingathering service which is all about water). That was when I realized that I’ve spent at least half my life by the Susquehanna. So there I was thinking about rivers, how they change me, what my responsibilities to them are, and someone forwarded a post about saving Langston Hughes house in Harlem. If you don’t know his rivers poem, look for the full poem here.

I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins

My soul has grown deep like the rivers. …

It’s a wonderful poem. Rivers are wonderful things. If they’re going to continue to change our lives, we’re going to have to continue — or maybe start — to care for them.

There is Peace in the rivers for us. Is there Peace in us for the rivers?

EverydayPeaceSunday34Aug21