A bridge over troubled water

Recently in the London/Tower Bridge area I saw a type of fountain I’d never seen before.  It was a narrow conduit running I guess 100mtrs.  Metal paving crossed it every few metres so people could walk over rather than hop across the open channel.  The flow of water was not the same along each section of the fountain.  Seeing the paving I thought of the Simon and Garfunkel song ‘Like a bridge over troubled waters’, and began to think about what it means to be a bridge.  

A bridge is defined as a structure that carries a road or path across an obstacle; an access point.  As a metaphor it speaks of support being given to others who, dealing with the flow of life, feel ill-equipped to face challenges.   As a bridge you help them to reach the options they feel unable to negotiate on their own.   You take some of the burden, lending them the strength and ability needed to reach a resolution.   You’re needed for a limited time; how long is hard to determine.  But having crossed their obstacle, the confidence you’ve helped them to grow will take them forward without you. 

Sense in the stillness

When you don’t know what to do, what should you do? May I suggest you stand still?  This isn’t the same as doing nothing. 

Doing nothing is the act of someone who feels helpless, without power, confused by what they see, deafened by what they hear, burdened by what they feel.  The  mind ceases to creatively manage the bombardment of incoming information.   Emotions become muddled, forcing retreat into inactivity.  Fear, rising like a stratus cloud, brings inability to settle on a course of action.

In standing still you allow your senses, rather than your intellect to speak to you.  How many times have you sensed what to do, not done it and later said “I knew I should have done that” or spoken about the gut feeling you had?  Intellect will rationale things away.  Standing still results in alertness and readiness to take the right step towards the outcome on the horizon.  Your heightened awareness brings sensitivity to the atmosphere, and promptness in dealing with whatever comes next. 

Standing in this stillness doesn’t mean that everything will fall into place just as you want.  But it will cause you, in your response to it, to be controlled.