Keep flowing: the story of a river | A TEDx presentation

Event: TEDxResedaBlvd
Theme: Connected
Topic: Keep Flowing: The Story of a River

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“The river of life flows, writing her story everywhere she goes. She rushes forward, destroying lands, debilitating landscapes. Then when her energy runs out, she slows down. Not knowing which path to take, she makes a lot of wrong turns while learning her lessons, sometimes spiraling in the same space for eons. People mock her, pee in her holy waters and contaminate her essence, still she dances her dance, sings her song and gushes with gusto. They don’t know it is her impulse to self actualize, to feel profoundly self-expressed, to know herself in experience that makes her bend backwards, stand on her head, become ridiculous and plunge into the abyss. Not for the moon, not for the stars, not for the flowers, not for the spring, not for her own, not for the known, she reaches for the unknown! An experience of eternity, imaginings unto infinity, dance with divinity, the kind of dance life is made of… A witness to history she watches humanity spend lifetimes without expressing themselves, afraid of not being good enough, suffering more due to non-expression than rejection. Her heart taught her to think for herself and not let people’s expectations define her. Everything ultimately is a battle of the heart, the center of all creative forces in the Universe. The path of the heart may seem frighteningly lonely, because no one else shares your madness. You may become a loner and if you lose faith, you can get lost in the dark night forlorn in your own isolation. But it is not scary, because out of that solitude poetry is born and the dance of life is choreographed.” 

Flowing
A slow-flowing river, a deeper journey…
Keep writing, keep singing,
Keep weaving the broken parts of you back into yourself, back into yourself.
Keep loving, keep holding,
Keep weaving the broken parts of you back into yourself, back into yourself.
Keep living lightly, keep letting go.
Keep breathing slowly, keep letting go.
Keep painting, keep dancing,
Keep weaving the broken parts of you back into yourself, back into yourself.
Keep living lightly, keep letting go.
Keep breathing slowly, keep letting go.
Keep hoping, keep flowing,
Keep weaving the broken parts of you back into yourself, back into yourself.
A slow-flowing river, a deeper journey…

Credits
Music by Lindsay Treen (singer/songwriter)
Words arranged from a card, ‘Flowing’, by artist Jaine Rose
Dance and story by Baisakhi Saha

The river of life flows across the earth, writing her story everywhere she goes. She glows with the passion of fire and flows with the zest of a child. She rushes forward, destroying lands, debilitating landscapes, carrying everything on her way without a care; then when her energy runs out she slows down, oftentimes not knowing which path to take, she flows in any direction. Well, she makes a lot of wrong turns while learning her lessons and landing up nowhere, sometimes spiraling in the same space for eons. People mock her, pee in her holy waters, contaminate her essence; still her will will not be thwarted. She dances her dance, sings her song and gushes with gusto. Sometimes she has to change the course of her path, obstacles on the way can slow her down, but nothing can stop her. People ask her:

O’ river dear,
Why do you flow so silently & shamelessly?
Why do you flow so idly and speechlessly?
Why do you flow so blindly and fervently?
Why are you so restless and directionless?
Why do you flow continually over millennia of madness?
Pray tell me, why do you flow…?

But she continues to flow mute, because people wouldn’t understand her desires. They do not know it is not her madness, but the impulse to self-actualize, to feel profoundly self-expressed, to know herself in experience that makes her bend backwards, stand on her head, become ridiculous, and plunge into the abyss. Not for the moon, not for the stars, not for the flowers, not for the spring, not for her own, not for the known, she reaches for the unknown. Passion awakens, the mundane becomes magnificent, she meets pink clouds, butterflies, rainbows, she speaks with flowers and raindrops, her desires floating in the breeze, in the resplendent atmosphere, her heart on fire…

A journey with no beginning no end, a parenthesis in infinity, the river flows expressing her inner madness, sadness, obsession, passion, navigating storms and vicissitudes, confronting her own solitude, suffering… When the dreams seem out of reach, when the dark gray clouds engulf her, when she has to face her own loneliness, navigate dark nights of the soul, she hopes against hope, dreams the impossible dream, expects the unexpected, because that’s what her heart beseeches. For it has the capacity to penetrate into that bottomless solitude and set her free, free to be who she is, free to become who she came here to be, free to flow…

A witness to history, she watches humanity spend lifetimes without expressing themselves, unaware of the deeper desires in their hearts, afraid of judgement, criticism, of not being good enough, suffering more due to non-expression than rejection. The perfect life they are waiting for is waiting for them. She doesn’t want to be like them, because creativity is the juice of life that keeps her alive. Perfection is not a stopping place in her imaginations. When they try to stop her, when there is no path for her to tread, she creates her own, without knowing how, in her imaginations, fallible and full of desire, without direction, without destination; she never stops flowing. An experience of eternity, imaginings unto infinity, dance with divinity, the kind of dance life is made of… it is the strangest of stories, but the most extraordinary stories are often the true ones!

Her heart taught her to think for herself and not let people’s expectations define her. She knows if she continues to learn the language of her heart, it’d eventually transcend her being and take her into the realm of real magic. Everything ultimately is a battle of the heart, the center of all creative forces of the Universe. But it is up to us, if we want to connect with it or not. The path of the heart may seem frighteningly lonely, because no one else shares your madness. You may become a loner and if you lose faith, you can get lost in the dark night, forlorn in your own isolation. But it is not scary, because out of that solitude poetry is born and the dance of life is choreographed.