Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream
Hunter… the downstream is fun… it’s when I hit the upstream… life is not gentle or dreamy any more…
Thanks for posting this though… we must have recited this a gazillion times growing up and then with my kids… never applied it to real life though…
Try approaching upstreams with more of a downstream mindset. First, learn to really savor downstreams. Witness what it is to be merrily merrily merrily merrily, and retain that flavor for future reference. Sniff it like a bloodhound.
Eventually you’ll see that you create your own upstreams. Like depression, it’s about an accumulation of insignificant things. Just observe.
Life’s downstream all the way, but we fight it. The turbulence of our thrashing about is what we perceive as upstreams
I like what Frank’s been sharing with us about his friend. Giving complete attention to the moment, and then making that attention exponential could make the stream, the up and the down, the sunlight sparkling on the water, the sounds the feel, tastes, smells an utterly unimaginable experience of…?
Alan and Jim… that is a real good approach. I have been working on it and they do work well… Thanks. I still have to make a conscious effort…
I like the idea of remembering the feelings of the downstream…
But this tiny breeze has a way of slipping in without warning… even when there isn’t the slightest breeze outside…
Conscious effort! You bet. I’m with you buddy. All these ‘wonderful philosophies’ I like to share don’t paint a picture of an everyday blissful reality for me. Ego’s got me hunkered down in the trenches.
Makes me look to the little song Hunter shared with us as an enjoyable experience of relief from all this watch-it talk 
Thanks for the truth Alan. That must have been a blow to your ego… 
Good to know I am not the only one out here swimming upstream 
That song just about says is all. I never really listened to the words in row your boat for a long time until I saw a movie called “How Stella got her Grove Back.” Stella had to visit her friend in the hospital who was dying of cancer. During the visit Stella sang row your boat just to cheer her friend up and for the first time I heard other meanings in that song in the context of this scene.
Great Song.