This River

"This river I step in is not the river I stand in" This is the Queen St bridge, where Queen crosses the Don River. It is a gang plank for eastside Toronto. Soon after moving to the eastside of downtown Toronto, this cryptic passage was embellished atop the bridge and, in the 10,000 times that I have driven, cycled, hiked, transited or fled across this bridge, I often gave thought to the significance of this statement. Initially, the statement meant nothing. I was a young professional with no time for games. I found the message to be insufferable: if you have something to say, then say it. Over time, the meaning was revealed to be a comment on the concept of time - a derivation of the concept that "you can never step in the same river twice", because it is always changing. Step or stand, I am in the slow water looking for change and seeing none. I defiantly dislodge a river rock and change this river. This river keeps moving, carrying subtle changes like a memory. I come to appreciate the river. It's in my food, my landscape and occasionally my basement. Over time this river changes me. Pondering what lies downstream, now I feel this river's push. As the current becomes the future, I neither step nor stand, just flow.