Luminaries, part III: The River’s End

There was once a river that flowed from a high, high mountain. It was said that this particular mountain, being closest to the sky, received only those blessed rains containing souls arriving from the upper world. These new immigrant spirits thus began their journey down the river of life.

One day a little boy noticed the way in which souls traveled the river. He saw some spirits flying down the middle of the stream, streaking toward the ocean like comets. The boy was impressed! ‘These must be the little ones who finish their journey quickly to get back home soon,’ he thought. He saw other spirits gently gliding along the river as if they would float forever. ‘Those must be the aged ones who live long and full lives so they can share wisdom about the river with others coming behind.’ The boy saw other spirits caught in little eddies or big whirlpools. They seemed to go round in circles, or get battered against the rocks. ‘Uh oh, those must be the ones who have a rough ride in the river school. I have heard that some of these become powerful survivors who go on to great deeds.’

The boy watched the river and the spirits for a long time. He noticed several truths about the river and its spirit travelers. Most obviously, all of the souls moved in the same direction—downstream. The boy never saw a traveling spirit make much progress against the current, although many of them tried with all their might. No matter how hard a traveler struggled to reverse direction on the river of life, soon a new rain or a strong wave would push him along with the others.

One day the boy wandered all the way to the river’s end and saw traveler after traveler hit the ocean with a yell of triumph. Shortly thereafter, he noticed these life-completed spirits being ‘evaporated’ back up into the Great Raincloud from which they had all come. He wondered if all of the spirits he saw up the river would get to the ocean. Moving on his little path back upstream the boy saw time and again a traveler who was stuck in a whirlpool, or exhausted and unmoving, or languishing in a brackish backwash. Would these spirits make it to the sea?

The boy would sit and watch a trapped or exhausted traveler, sometimes for hours or even days, to see if anyone would come to the rescue. Sometimes a new traveler coming downstream would bump into the stuck traveler, pushing her back out into the main course of the river. Or compassionate travelers, who seemed to be looking toward every rough patch of water, would reach out a hand to grasp an exhausted brother or sister. The boy also noticed some mysterious occurrences where no spirit traveler was involved, but a trapped soul would be freed without any visible intervention.

The boy’s grandfather once told him that he had also been a ‘river watcher’ in his childhood. He claimed to have met a magical being down by the river’s end one day who told him that he could ask one question about the ‘doings’ of this river and the spirits who traveled it. The boy-grandfather asked about the spirits ‘who got evaporated’ up into the heavens. Were they all going to the same destination? The wise being smiled and answered, “No my child, at least not right away; many will return with the rain to this great mountain or another mountain some where in the universe. These are called the ‘life finishers.’ They will come back for another ride down the river school, likely a very different ride next time. And some deep-hearted ones will go above the Great Raincloud and beyond the rainbow to our homeworld and never return. These are the ‘life graduaters.’ But, do not fret! Every one of them will graduate beyond the rainbow in time.”

His grandfather had died two years ago. The boy never met the magical being down at the river’s end. But after years of watching the river and its travelers, he sat down one day with his school notebook and wrote: All souls travel downstream; all souls get the help they need; all souls make it to the ocean in their own time; all souls eventually return to their Source.