Sunday Evening, I Finally Walked the Whole Stream Path

After five on Sunday evening, the sun had slipped behind the buildings. I had been home all day, yet I had done very little, and Monday felt as if it were already at my door. I got up from the sofa, put on the jacket hanging by the front door, and went out. I had nowhere to go.

In the ten years I had lived here, I had always walked the stream near my home only as far as the stepping stones and then turned back. I had never been beyond them. Today I crossed the stepping stones and kept going. I didn't put in my earphones. A bicycle passed, ringing its bell, and an old man out with his dog overtook me slowly. The water was shallower and clearer than I had expected, and I could see the stones on the bottom.

Sitting by the Water

I sat on a bench under the bridge and opened still().

He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

Psalm 23:2 (WEB)

The words “leads me” overlapped with the path I had walked today. It was written as though the place of rest lay at the end of the direction I was being led. I had always assumed that to rest I had to finish my work and make time, but today I had come and sat by the water without finishing anything. The bench was cold, and the sound of the water came steady.

Two ducks kept swimming against the current, then let go and drifted back down, then went up against it again, over and over. I watched for a long while and then rubbed my face with my hands. On the way back, the streetlights came on one by one, and my steps were slower than when I had started. Taking off my shoes at the front door, I thought I should eat dinner slowly tonight. I made a soup with the eggs that were in the fridge, and while it boiled I stood at the stove thinking of the ducks I had seen. Back at home, thoughts of Monday were a little farther away than before.

Today's Breath — Walk slowly to one place you have never been, and leave one breath between your steps.