While in Spain, I was introduced to a wonderful new idiom that has since become my battle cry: From lost to the river.
At first glance, it may sound strange when directly translated, but if you think about it, any idiom you’re not familiar with sounds pretty strange, translated or not. I mean, I know a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, but… wait, what?
The meaning of ‘from lost to the river’ is quite simple. And once you know the meaning, you can see that the imagery is perfect. Basically, it means to risk everything because there’s nothing to lose, but everything to win. If you're lost in the middle of the forest and find your way to a river, well then you're home free. You can follow a clear path, and more often than not, a river will lead you to people.
This has become particularly meaningful to me in the last week. I’ve been faced with a lot of doubt about many aspects of my life as of late, circus included. The people I met at Pueblo Ingles helped me work through quite a lot of it and have inspired me to keep pushing forward to find that river.
So imagine my surprise when I arrived at the circus to find that we were right next to a river. And I do mean right next to. Here’s the view from my caravan window…
Let's take a closer look...
In Dijon, my caravan was by a parking lot. My window was right next to a garbage can. I would be sitting down to a nice cup of tea only to have cars drive up to dump out their trash. Now I’m serenaded by birdsong and the sound of flowing water. At this very moment, there is a heron wading on the opposite bank. A mallard keeps mooning me and every now and then some fish jump out to see what’s going on. As Kurt Vonnegut wrote, “I had to laugh like hell”.
A while ago I realized that there’s really no point in looking for signs. A sign won’t tell you what to do, it’ll only tell you what your heart really wants. You’re always going to seek out the signs that tell you what you want to hear. Though I suppose if you’re unsure, signs are useful. And yet…
