Quote- “Life is like the river, sometimes it sweeps you gently along and sometimes the rapids come out of nowhere”- Emma Smith
By the time you read this blog it will be the second half of June. It is the time of year to enjoy maximum daylight, with the longest day of the year being on the 21st June. I often find that the area I live has an abundance of great walks nearby, and a walk is such a wonderful opportunity to be mindful and gather ideas for writing. I often talk of the power of the outdoors and nature in my blogs.
I love what Emma Smith says of life being like a river. Some days we move “gently along” and others we face “rapids” and feel everything is going wrong or becoming a challenge. The walk I am thinking of in this blog is a three-mile round loop along the river with a bridge to cross halfway. In literary terms we sometimes need to cross to a different place or area to help us write and reflect better.
It can be a challenge to start writing but also to continue through to the end of a piece of work. The bridge can act as a way to move over from a mindset that is stagnating to a more productive place. I like how the walk I go on is split into two, one and a half mile sections. Each is slightly different but the river remains the same whichever side you are on.
One of the most famous classics with a river as one of the main themes of the novel is, Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K Jerome. It is a comedy narrative but on one occasion presents the less pleasant side of the river. I studied this book during my degree and it is interesting how the river is explored in detail. The characters move from talking about the mundane to a sense of what their legacy will be, through items in a hundred years into the future. The river provides a space of calm reflection and more hectic and challenging sections. This links to what Smith says about the river being like life and providing unexpected moments of calm and turbulence.
One more reflection that a river walk provides is the idea of continuity. A river is always flowing and even during deluges or droughts, it finds a way to keep flowing to reach its end point. As a young writer I find ideas are very similar. Even during times of thoughts being slowed down, a new thought can be inspired from the smallest object or event happening. Nature has the ability to appear to always look the same but to be constantly evolving too. This is a great symbol, for everyone and especially writers- that you can retain your preferred style of writing but adapt and evolve too.
Work Cited-
Watershed. “Watershed”. Watershed. Date accessed: 19th May 2025. URL: watershedcabins.com/post/best-river-quotes-nc-smoky-mountain-vacation.