river

Man is a stream whose source is hidden. Our being is descending into us from we know not whence. When I watch that flowing river, which, out of regions I see not, pours for a season its streams into me, I see that I am a pensioner; not a cause, but a surprised spectator of this ethereal water

Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Over-Soul

By the time it came to the edge of the Forest the stream had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved more slowly. For it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, "There is no hurry. We shall get there some day."

Benjamin Hoff - The Tao of Pooh

Before the new technologies and ideas, time was a river in which human beings were immersed, moving steadily on the current, never faster than the speeds of nature- of currents, of wind, of muscles. Trains liberated them from the flow of the river, or isolated them from it. Photography allowed us to freeze the water of passing time: appearances that were once as fluid as water running through one's fingers became solid objects. Throughout the nineteenth century, [as the railroad and photography were invented] and as Darwin worked out his theories about literal evolution, it is as though consciousness evolved from something utterly immersed in this river [of time] to something that clambered onto land.

Rebecca Solnit - River of Shadows

For me, old age is fine. It is nice to be old! There are things young people cannot experience. Young people are like a source of water from the top of the mountain, always trying to go as quickly as possible. But when you become a river going through the lowland, you are much more peaceful. You reflect many clouds and the beautiful blue sky. Being old has its own joys. You can be very happy being an old person. When I sit with young monks and nuns, I feel that they are my continuation. I have done my best, and now they are continuing my being. This is interbeing, nonself.

Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching