Go as a River

by Shelley Read

“I’ll go as a river,” said Wil. “My grandfather always told me that it’s the only way.”

when I first learned to trust the hours instead of fill them.

Strength, I had learned, was like this littered forest floor, built of small triumphs and infinite blunders, sunny hours followed by sudden storms that tore it all down. We are one and all alike if for no other reason than the excruciating and beautiful way we grow piece by unpredictable piece, falling, pushing from the debris, rising again, and hoping for the best.