the river's reflection

I feel a sense of contentment tonight. The new semester has just begun and the inevitable deadlines yet to hang over my head. Both my personal and academic reading materials are intriguing. And despite the anxiety that accompanied me to my first real class today, I left the building with a feeling of invigoration that has been buried beneath the recent clouds of a mild depression. Even the unusually warm temperatures could not dim my spirits tonight. Though the fantasies of playing outside on a snowy wintry day continue to fill my dreams, I have succumbed to an acceptance of a southern interpretation of the season.

The change I felt inside today was paralleled by the river’s currents as I passed across it. On my way out into the world this morning, the river’s noisy and unsettled surface mirrored my own painful fears. Through the violent rain, I could feel the river’s uncertainty and was caught in wonder of what lay ahead. But my journey back home found a calmer and more serene river, one offering its soothing waters as proof that the clouds were lifting and the sun would indeed shine again soon.

There is no guarantee of how the river may present itself tomorrow. There is no certainty that the clouds will continue to lift or that the rains will not return with their drenching downpours. But there is possibility and hope. May the river’s waters continue to reflect the contentment I feel tonight.