Walking, driving, riding, running in the mountains brings across things that should make us think.  In the mountains I have come across streams flowing down the mountain, through a valley or a farm.  Can you see a flowing stream in your mind that you have seen before?  Did you ever try to pick a part in the water and watch it flow over, around, and sometimes under things whether it was a leaf, a stick, some other type of object?  The object I watched in the water flowed into rocks and slowly worked its way around it to continue its forward motion.  I saw it flow through little rapids with the up and down motion still going forward until it was out of sight.  Our lives began to surface in my mind.  We are born in some point of the stream of time.  We start our journey flowing forward towards different type of situations.  We run into places that slow us down, but we still continue forward.  We hit places in life and in time where it feels like we are up one moment and down the next.  We have the moments we feel like we are going under, but the stream of time still moves us along.  Looking at the stream of water I can see we are born into the stream of time in different eras of this life.  I can see my parents were born in a time in the stream where life was very much different from the stream of time I was born into, yet the stream flows onward without the notion of ever stopping.  The stream of time waits for no one.  I can see the stream carries all the generations of mankind.  Each and every one faces the different elements of this stream, yet continues forward.  The streams of water I have seen have been in the winter, sprint, summer and the fall.  You and I have flowed down this stream of time experiencing a lifetime of cold, warm, cool, and mild moments from family, friends, and fellow human beings.  Yet the stream flows onward without stopping.  Our lives are flowing by without any ability to control its ever flowing forward motion.

WARNING:  DEEP THOUGHTS AHEAD

Imagine an eagle flying down to get a drink of water and you were one of the drops of water it scooped up and as it was flying away you dripped out of its beak landing on a branch of a tall tree.  A leaf comes forth from the spot you landed.  Your life is now one with the leaf.  You now have a view high above the streams below.  You experience the wind blowing your leaf,  the warm sunshine, the full moon nights, the morning dew upon your outer shell, the heavy rains, the cold frost, and the changes a leaf goes through.  As summer comes to an end and the fall temperatures take over you notice your outer shell, which is the leaf is drying up and your color is changing.  Then the day comes you feel your self detach from the branch and you find yourself floating towards the earth as things around you slowly fade away.