Riding the Currents

Glancing out my car window, I caught its circling beauty. Wings spread wide, head and tail gleaming white in the sun, the bald eagle glided over trees and fields. It provoked a longing in me to be able to ride currents like that, like a hang glider, or a bird, or a giant turtle in the sea. I wondered how it felt to soar, to let the wind or water direct your destination. It seemed serene and soothing.

            Intrigued, I studied a bit about the eagle’s flight. Did it choose its own path, or did it just chance its journey on the current of the day? The answer revealed a choreography of intention, embrace, discernment, and cooperation I hadn’t understood.

            Currents, whether in air, water, or electricity, are considered fluids as they move. Thermal energy guides most, creating distinct zones of warmer and cooler regions which shape the force and direction of the flow. For the eagle, warm air from the earth rises in a column, displacing the cooler air around it downward.

            Eagles seek the thermals, purposefully flying into them. They conserve energy while resting from flapping, able to stay high in the air so they can continue hunting or migration. Once in the thermal, they expand their tail and wing feathers, giving maximum surface area to the current’s force. Still alert, they must keep steering into the current to stay aloft, circling around to maintain their height. As the current changes, the eagle can descend or fly away to another thermal.

            Eagles, whales, turtles, and other migratory species rely on the currents to accomplish the long journeys they take through the seasons. I wonder what currents take me—take us—to destinations in life? Are they subject to daily temperature changes? Do we seek them out or just fall into them? Do we sleepily float on them, lulled by the waves and the warmth, or are we actively choosing to cooperate with them, to turn in a direction that will yield our best health and future? Do our currents take us to the places we yearn for?

            So much of our days can seem predetermined. Work, errands, home tasks, and community commitments quickly fill calendars. Sometimes it’s hard to remember how we got from one place to the next. In the noise of social media, political turmoil, world disasters and local crises, we have our own sort of constant flapping. While all those things can pull us into a stream, it typically is one that becomes narrower and more exhausting as we descend in its spiral.

             Seeking beneficial currents, we consider the thermals that might take us to heights while also renewing our strength.  As an intentional act, the seeking gives order to the other movements of our days. Prayer, meditation, yoga, and silence are just a few of the practices that may reveal a current’s presence. As we enter their energy, we embrace the reality that we move in response to both the seen and unseen.

            Embracing the current that carries us is not a passive trance-like action. We must cooperate with the waves, keep turning into the place that moves us, and discern when we are meant to leave or to stay in one place. As much as we might want to just float, riding the current requires mindfulness and collaboration.

            Several practices may assist this space of fluid movement. Noticing the pulls and pushes that affect us can become clear through journaling, spiritual direction, the Examen, or joining in communal reflection. Confidential spaces such as Alcoholics Anonymous and faith-based small groups might orient us to methods of traveling currents for longer distances. 

            In the natural world, currents have a predictability and rhythm that affords creatures a measure of security in entering their energy. Like the Anglican Matins and Evensong prayers, the eagle’s thermals mark the beginning and end of daylight. The Celts marked not just morning and evening, but many of the ordinary features of their days, such as farming and washing, with blessings as they began their labor. Rituals and practices that order our weeks and our years can provide continuity as we embark on journeys of spirituality and health.

Regular worship, New Moon observances, seasonal celebrations such as Holi and Solstice, liturgical calendars, yoga retreats, communal meals, and Sabbath-keeping are some of the many ways we may discover predictable and rhythmic patterns as we learn to trust the currents we enter. Traditions of fasting and feasting help us tune our bodies to the rhythms of our lives. Becoming aware of the patterns that shape us is essential to cooperating with the healing energy around us rather than being tossed about by unexpected turbulence.

            For me, physical space is important to notice as it shapes my energy. My at-home office is active, stimulating and filled with visual reminders of work to be done. It is not conducive to renewal and a spreading of my wings. Making myself get up and move when it is time to seek a current’s refreshment is essential. Sitting by a light-filled window helps to engage my body and mind as I enter a time of reflection. Silencing my phone, breathing with awareness, and softening my gaze function like the spread of tail feathers and wings, maximizing the potential for lift. Quite often, just a few minutes in this space will restore me for the rest of the work ahead and refocus my purpose.

            Perhaps the currents in our lives function as sentinels of our days and nights, but also as micro moments of meaning. Maybe some are available every day if we wish to join them, and others invite us to view glimpses of what we haven’t yet seen. As we are more intentional in recognizing and joining cooperatively with the forces that carry us toward wholeness, we may enjoy ever-widening circles of clarity, strength, purpose, and embrace.

            As much as we might want to “be in the zone” for the whole day, that is as impossible for us as it is for the eagle. The clamor and call of our work and our world will continue. These are regions we must also inhabit. There are nests to build, families to feed and journeys to take.

            However, understanding more of the healing currents available to us gives hope for whatever is ahead. Amid daily struggles, unwelcome interruptions, and personal disappointments, we can lean into a current, asking it to carry us for just a bit so that our work may continue toward its intended end.

I plan to better notice the thermals open to me, to steer toward them purposefully, and to mindfully stay with the energy of that space. Beginning and ending my days with ancient prayers, patterning my weeks on rhythms of rest and activity, marking my life with ritual and communal celebrations, and fully engaging in community with those in my circles will satisfy my longings to see a bigger view of the world before me.