We Are A River
Our life has not been an ascent
up one side of a mountain and down the other.
We did not reach a peak,
only to decline and die.
We have been as drops of water,
born in the ocean and sprinkled on the earth
in a gentle rain.
We became a spring,
and then a stream,
and finally a river flowing deeper and stronger,
nourishing all it touches
as it nears its home once again.
Don't accept the modern myths of aging.
You are not declining.
You are not fading away into uselessness.
You are a sage,
a river at its deepest
and most nourishing.
Sit by a river bank some time
and watch attentively as the river
tells you of your life.
- Lao Tzu
(interpretation by William Martin)
Note: William Martin is a Taoist and Zen student in California who has written several volumes interpreting the work of Lao Tzu, the supreme yet mysterious embodiment of Taoism. The most recent of Martin's books is The Sage's Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for the Second Half of Life (2010), a reissue of a book completed ten years earlier. Hugh and Gayle Prather write of it, “Here is wisdom that is beauty and beauty that is wisdom. William Martin's final book of his Tao Te Ching trilogy is a masterpiece. It illuminates all the unexplored potentials inherent in the second half of life and eases the mind into each one. Powerful, lyrical, insightful, The Sage’s Tao Te Ching is a guide that will lead your heart gently and surely to ‘life itself.’”