Row, Row, Row Your Boat

I hope you're well. It's the first Friday of June and the summer solstice is right around the corner! You wouldn't necessarily know that if you could look outside my window. Instead of sunny late spring skies, we're in June gloom. I notice that this really does impact my mood ~ a full week of overcast gray skies is not the most uplifting thing!

But whether we like what it's doing or not, the weather is going to weather! All we can do is keep going, keep breathing. And as I keep going ~ through June gloom and the many challenging and wonderful realities of life right now ~ a certain song has been a frequent inner companion:

🎶 Row, row, row your boat 🚣‍♀️ 🎶

I think this one is familiar to many, if not most of us! Every song is a poem, and because this one has been playing in my head so much I started thinking more about it and what it's actually about. And I thought my reflections might be helpful to you, so I'm sharing them with you today.

The song starts with Row, row, row your boat ~ a reminder that you’re in your own boat ~ and you can show up as you are, from where you are. Not trying to steer someone else’s boat. Not rushing or performing. Just staying with yourself, breath by breath.

Rowing is a lot like breathing. It’s rhythmic and embodied, and it’s how we move forward when we don’t know what comes next.

We may not always have a map or even be able to see much of what’s ahead, but we do have our breath. And you could say that breath ~ steady, simple and always available ~ is how we "row our boat" through the world.

The next line is: Gently down the stream

I hear this as a reminder to accept what is and go with the flow, when you can. To consider whether you're making something more complicated than it needs to be or trying to control something that can't be controlled (or isn't yours to control).

And then: Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily

When we're navigating challenges, it can be so easy to tighten our grip. To get hyper-focused on what seems to be going wrong, and to catastrophize about how bad it will be in the future. I hear this line of the song as a reminder that we can take ourselves and our challenges seriously while also finding a spirit of play. A lot of things can be true at the same time and joy, delight, curiosity and silliness aren't always distractions from healing ~ often, they are healing.

And finally: Life is but a dream

That line can hold so many meanings. It certainly doesn’t mean that life is dreamy all the time. Right now, I’m sitting with it as a reminder that we live inside stories ~ stories we’ve inherited, and stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what’s happening.

But the truth is: we never have the full picture. We live in a constantly unfolding mystery. Being alive means that uncertainty is always with us. And while that can feel vulnerable, it can also be freeing.

It means that we don’t have to know everything. In every moment, there are things we can know, and things we can't know. And what I've found to be the most helpful is to hold both and stay present ~ as best we can.

If it’s been hard to row your boat lately ~ hard to be gentle with yourself, or to find a spirit of fun, or to remember that it’s actually ok not to have all the answers ~ you’re not alone. That’s often the moment when we start turning on ourselves. We think we should be handling it better, doing more, knowing more. But what if that's not true? What if there's another way to look at things ~ and to relate to yourself ~ when you're struggling?

Wishing you a weekend that is as easeful, gentle and fun as possible 🙃

Do you have loved ones who are struggling to row their boat gently down the stream right now? Feel free to forward this post to them ❤️