Where are you going?  My friend Tommy recently asked me this, as we talked together on this particular hot August morning.   Committed to touching base with each other, we talk a couple times a week to keep ourselves on track and motivated.  As I thought about his questions, I thought of a course on personal vision development, I taught a week earlier at the Rutgers School of Alcohol and Drug Studies, and the wonderfully positive changes I saw in the students over that previous week. 

Believing firmly in creating goals, they keep us focused and from derailing ourselves when the distractions of life seem to creep in and nudge us off course.  Or when we are consistently confronted by negatively, as Tommy related his friend Les Brown said about CNN, calling it "constantly negative news," we often find ourselves barraged by discouragement.  To protect ourselves we need to look forward to something; things to work for, and even things to get over.   Without goals we tend to wander through life rather than having specific reasons for what we do.   Sound familiar?

As we talked on this morning it occurred to me that even rivers go off course at times.  They spill over their banks, running amuck, squandering their resources, and even at times doing more harm than good.  Like them we sometimes find ourselves off course, doing what we know is not our best, or best for us, and we get down.  The rains come and the clouds seem to block out the sun.  As we are seized by our interpretation of what is happening we often react, stopping, afraid to move.  

It's at this time we need to realize that the sun is not gone, and even the river that goes off course continues to move forward.   The sun is still there, and the rains will stop.  To be alive is to continue to move.  As the river regains its balance it once again finds its course and gets back on track.  There may be things to clean up, and even some mopping up and drying out to do.  But if it just keeps on flowing, keeps on going, it finds its way back on track.  And it just seems to flow once again.

Maybe you are feeling off track; that you have gotten off course and have overflowed your banks.  Just keep flowing.  The clouds do clear and the sun is always up there, no matter how dark it may seem.  As long as you keep moving, keep it going and keep it flowing, you will once again find your path.  I hope you will share it with me!  I hope life is flowing for you.

Be well,

John