Time
A river is an apt symbol for the passage of an individual lifetime. Its current flows ever ahead, no matter how narrow the channel or rocky the riverbed. A dam or debris may work temporarily to stop the flow, but the river will always find another way to press forward.
This past weekend I attended my high school reunion. It felt really good to see so many old friends and acquaintances. Sometimes I think my life is nothing more than a continuous series of transitions without a discernable purpose, but reconnecting with so many people from my past has given me a sense of continuity that I haven’t felt in a long time.
It’s been so many years since we stood together on the same point along life’s timeline. And then, off we went — just like a bunch of Tarot fools. The roads we’ve walked have taken us in so many different directions: never married, married to a high school sweetheart, divorced three times, no children, grown children, toddler children, 10 grandchildren, police officer, banker, business owner, photographer, live 3 minutes away, live 3,000 miles away.
Even with all our diversions, the reunion allowed us to bring our lives to the same point once again, so many years later. We filled each other with wide-eyed hellos, long hugs and happy, dancing feet.
We’re middle-aged now. For most of us, there’s less lifetime ahead than behind. Gravity’s rightful work of pressing us back down into the darkness of nature is more evident in some of us than others, but we’re all feeling time’s march to some degree.
The miracle of last Saturday night is that we looked at each other and recognized the youthful, timeless spirit that still resides inside, even though our aging bodies sometimes hide it from view.
We can still see the light of possibility in each other. We know it’s there because we’ve seen it before. Our memories of each other are connected to a time when we were brand new and the world was waiting for us to take a taste.
My reunion reminded me that there’s the time our bodies keep and there’s the timelessness our souls keep. Our physical forms must follow the finite timeline of birth to death, but our spirits are unfettered and ageless. Reconciling this paradox — that the boundless would be contained within the bound — is one of the challenges of the second half of life I suppose.
– Writeye
Posted on August 18th, 2009 under Current Events, Jungian Psychology • Tags: river symbol for time, time symbolism. • 
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