Quit trying to corral the river
to slow it down
or to touch every drop
or to steer it away 
from the danger of the waterfall

The river will do what the river will do
Even the beaver makes little difference
without an excess of patience
one branch at a time
unconcerned about leaks

The best you can do 
is to learn to give up
to yield yourself and float like a raft
limbs splayed wide
watching the trees float by
on their own blue and white waterway

trusting that the river will go
where the river will go
letting yourself go along for the ride
believing somehow that waterfalls
are beautiful
wreathed in rainbows
and that, once you rise, spluttering
at the bottom, disheveled
and off balance
even the scrapes and bruises 
will have been a small price to pay
for the way your heart leaped
as you sailed over the edge