The River and the Ocean, when the Message in the Bottle is You Yourself

19. I am a river

I have a promise to keep,

I have a purpose to keep,

I have a house to keep,

But I am not here,

So these tasks

Flow to me

and through me,

I tell them, these heavy burdens,

O' Ships of causes and consequences!

Tarry not on my riverbanks,

Sweep straight through

And set sail for the Ocean,

For I too am imprisoned

By causes and consequences.

For resolutions of doubt

lies in the Sea of Mercy,

In the Ocean of Certainty,

Naught in me!

Five times a day, I like to dip my pinky toes into the shore of a vast ocean. Five times a day I let go of the burden of existence, of the weight of cause and consequences, and find myself by the Sea of Infinite Mercy. There I stuff all my worries and anxieties into a bottle, and address it politely to "God Almighty, Certainty Avenue, Everywheretown, P.O. Box 01 Nowhereville." Then I would chuck the bottle as far as I can into the sea. Sometimes an Angel in the shape of a seagull would swoop down and catch the bottle in mid-flight, and carry it far, far away.

But on a really bad day, our state of worldly being is so inflamed, that I would forget with the niceties of a bottle. I would simply leap into the waves, and let the current take me as far into the ocean as it wants to. In such times, my message to God is me myself, pleading to Him, "Help." 

And He does.

Have a by-the-sea-lovely day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way