A Clear View

I can't remember the river ever being this clear. In part, it's because the water level is low. We really need rain.

I think the clarity also has something to do with the floods we experienced last spring. The riverbed is still covered with the silt that settled after the waters receded. I think the swift currents of last spring may also have been responsible for uprooting the duck weed that, this time of year, has been known to crowd our view.

As I'm doing my own inner clearing, preparing for the meditation class I will begin teaching in two weeks on letting go and beginning again, I'm struck by another benefit of "clearing out"--gaining clarity. It's funny, but I've never viewed the benefit of clearing in quite that way.

In the clearing process, it is natural for things to get stirred up like the muck on the river floor. When that happens, it's nice to remember that eventually it all settles again. I know in my own life, usually after the turmoil has subsided, things become clearer than ever before.

Sometimes we've gained a clarity about where we are supposed to be, where our souls are calling us to go. Other times it is a clarity about how beautiful the moment is, or how fortunate we are. Sometimes, it is simply an open view, allowing us space to see what is next in a whole new light.