What the river has shown me

[Bahasa Indonesia]
My friends and I were discussing the poem It’s a pleasure to be a student. One asked about the line “Rivers show me the nature of myself.” What can rivers show us? She asked.

It brought me back to when I was in Anahata, Ubud, Bali.

Towards the end of my stay there, we went down to the river just below our resort.


I dipped my feet in the river. I moved my feet around and played with the water. The feet, naturally, moved and it was a nice sensation.

Then I suddenly stopped moving my feet, while still leaving them in the water. And what I saw, moved me, inside.

I saw my feet kept moving. It was moved by the river water, rather playfully. It was a grandeur sensation.

Perhaps that’s how we should live our life as well. If we surrender to nature, then the nature will gracefully and lovingly (and sometimes playfully) move us.

We do not have to try to fight or move against it to get that grand sensation. Perhaps there is such thing as trying too hard.

Instead, we just appreciate, surrender, and flow with it. Experiencing, enjoying, an even grandeur sensation.

And that, I told my friend, was what the river has shown me.

Pic: From Anahata Spa & Villas Resort.