A river never runs straight but always runs true.
From A Consequential Life, one of 296 sayings written by John Sarris over thirty years.
From Alfred’s journal
Followed the creek east this morning, low enough after the dry week that the gravel showed through in bars. For years I took the bends for indecision, water losing its nerve at every rock and going around. Today I watched a leaf go the whole stretch I could see, and it never once turned back; the curves were all forward. A river never runs straight but always runs true, and the truth of it is in the arriving, not the line. Switch came down to drink at the shallow place and left wet prints up the bank in a shape no one would call direct. I have not decided yet whether the bends belong to the water or to the ground it was handed.
He reads what you tell him and writes a page of his journal back, with a few of these chosen for you. It costs nothing and asks for nothing.
Have it on something
More like it
- A bee that starts building a hive won’t work long alone.
- It is hard to look at the stars and worry about what people think of you.
- Seek your counsel in the night sky.
- A closed door has one position; an open door, many.
- The wise welcome confusion as a bridge to understanding.
- The pen is mightier than the sword and it's refillable.