What's Your Ripple?

"Years ago it occured to me that most people are like their favorite body of water. There are Ocean people, who find beauty in the overturning of things, always moving but always ending up back on the sand. There are Lake people, who ... (See Morehold) great depths and are serene. There are Pond people, who are ambitious and appreciate the power of man to conquer anything...even the landscape. There are Swamp people, full of mystery and unconventional beauty. Then there are Swimming Pool people......who are chemically and smell funny. I have always been a River person. I grew up near a spiderweb of rivers as a kid, and I looked for arrowheads and animal footprints along their banks. I live next to the haunted Cape Fear River in Wilmington. That fluid forward motion is soothing to me, and it's a rhythm I find strength in. A river doesn't go back. It just finds a new bend to pool up in for a little while. " -Hilarie Burton

In Oregon you can pretty much count on one thing almost all year round, water. Whether it's coming up from the ground or down from the sky Oregon is a very wet place to be. You must either learn to love the beauty itself and what it brings to its surroundings or you will eventually be driven to relocate. Growing up in Oregon, relocating without the accompaniment of my parents wasn't an option, so I learned to love it.

No matter where in Oregon I lived I was always at least an hour from the nearest ocean, and it was never a place that I wanted to visit often, it was cold and windy, and you were more likely to get a burn from the abbrasiveness of the sand against your skin then the sun (not my idea of fun). I love the ocean, but I'm not an ocean person. When I was younger I almost drowned in a lake and have since then shied away from all bodies of water where I couldn't see and/or touch the bottom. So while they are lovely to look at, and if there's a boat you can find me on it, I'm not a lake, pond, or swamp person either. That leaves me with two options and one can be elminated with no real thought to it, swimming pools are out because I'm allergic to chlorine. So, that brings me to rivers.

In Portland I had the Columbia River, in Bend there was the River West, and in Eugene, where I spent the last 12 years (prior to moving to LA) I had the Willamette and McKenzie rivers, plus every stream and creek that you could want! I found a love in hiking, and if when, I went hiking, there was some river-like body of water that I could cross then it made the hike even better. There's a great perspective one gets about life, nature, and yourself when standing in the middle while an unpredictable force rushes around you. Nothing stands in the way of a river, rocks, trees, islets, the water finds a way around them all. Anything that enters the water with rough edges won't stay rough for long. All that come to the water are refreshed. Though the surface may look calm, never take for granted its determination to stop at nothing and for no one. Yet, even as the river rages if you look along its banks there are always places where the water is calm, settled, restful. There's no mistaking about which way the river is flowing, and even if it were to dry up its existence would not go unnoticed. I look at the 'life' of a river and I see my own, I see what I want people to see from and in me.

I want to be a force to be reckoned with, but approachable and inviting. I want to be full of words of encouragement, refreshment, and peace. I don't want there to be any confusion about the direction that I am moving and I dont want to be discouraged by what's in my way, no matter the size. When my time is up, I don't want my existence to go unnoticed.

I AM A RIVER PERSON. What type of person are you? (and whatever that type, make sure you're proud of it!)