Today I’m with how much my life, our lives, are influenced by the flow of water, the cycle of water.  In my case, I’ve known and ridden on the Des Moines river, the Mississippi river, the Intercoastal Waterway, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the San Diego and San Francisco Bay.

When we lived in Des Moines, Iowa my father built a boat in the garage so we could go out boating.  When we moved to a house outside Bettendorf, Iowa we had that boat for floating and water skiing on the Mississippi river.  

We moved there when I was nine.  I named our new puppy,, a Weimeraner, Mr. Sippi.  My grandmother gave me Mark Twain’s memoir  Life on the Mississippi to read.  One may know only a part of a river, and yet be influenced by the whole.

Today I perused Wikipedia to learn: The Mississippi River begins as a trickle flowing out of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota. From there the river flows 2,348 miles until it pours into the Gulf of Mexico below New Orleans. The Mississippi River drains 33 states and its watershed covers one-half of the nation.

The  Missouri river, the longest river in the US – North America flows 2,341 miles from its headwaters at the confluence of the Gallatin, Madison, and Jefferson Rivers in the Rocky Mountains at Three Forks, Montana, to its confluence with the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri. It crosses seven states: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri.

If we consider the Mississippi-Missouri river system, the total length forms the world’s fourth longest river, after the Amazon, Nile, and Yangtze rivers.

The song This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land comes to mind.  Today we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. at a time when a man who foments division is receiving votes.  

A tender is a small ship that carries people and supplies to and from a larger ship and shore.  How can we tender and be tender with ourselves as we navigate the rivers that connect, and sometimes divide?

In the movie Muscle Shoals, Blacks and Whites are shown playing music together with no noticing of skin color at all.  A river reflects the ground beneath and the colors of the sky.  May we, too, unite in meeting what comes with tender eyes as we trust the landing, integration, and fluidity of water and light.