"I've known rivers," writes Langston Hughes. "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".

Am I going to flow with my river nature today, or am I going to swim against it? this is what I ask myself when I get out of bed each morning. And when I go to sleep, I apologize to the river gods for any hard strokes I made against the current, and for splashing about like a drowning person. I pray that tomorrow I may once again know the pleasure of following my soul downstream, because I've known rivers- and once we've known rivers, once we have stretched out on the dark waters, trusting the river gods, going in the direction of life even if it is headfirst toward the rapids - we want to taste that water again;

we want our souls to grow deep like the rivers again.

Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How difficult times can help us grow