Well, hello there. My name is Morgan Harper-Nichols. I'm an artist and a writer, and this is a space where I share words that I hope can make a little room for you to slow down and take a few deep breaths as you prepare for whatever lies ahead.

Thanks for being here today. And now on to today's episode. Do you ever find yourself worried that your plans might not

work out? Do you ever lose sleep or lose track of time over the potential roadblocks that might come just around the bend.

As you prepare to listen to today's episode, I hope that you can take a moment to imagine a place

in your life where you've been feeling stuck and you're asking questions. And I hope that you

can also imagine a river and how it has learned to

move around the obstacles in its path. Perhaps when we find ourselves stuck, we can come to know what the

rivers know, that there is always a way to embrace the flow of life. When we think of a river flowing,

we may think of a beautiful, serene place where everything is working together without any sign

of restraint or struggle. We may imagine that it is easy for the river to move as it does over and around everything in its path.

But when we look closer, we may discover that for the water to pass through, it has to find its way around so many different obstructions.

The same is true for our own lives. Sometimes all we want

is for our plans to come into fruition in the form of a river before us. We want our goals to drift into

place and we want to wade into the good things that come from them.

However, even a river's water doesn't flow in a clean straight line.

Sometimes it rushes forward or churns into rapids.

Unlike water that pours down a human-made funnel or canal, when the water passes through a river,

it must pass over rocks and boulders within the riverbed.

It can even grow narrow at certain points and the water may take longer to pass through.

And in some cases, there can be a drought that causes the river to dry up

completely. And yet, we don't question why the river flows as it does. We trust its journey,

and we trust that it will take us where we need to go. Sometimes all we want is for our plans to come into fruition in the form of a river before us.

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