by Erin Johannesen, M.A., M.D.
In a river, water flows over stones, and the stones do not mind. Their edges, worn smooth, bring evenness to them. The stones do not need to reach or to try. It is not a ‘wearing out,’ or a ‘wearing through’; it is a ‘wearing in’ in the place of the river. A stone cannot help but to be what the stir of water tells it to be, and stones beneath water give shape to water, yet neither cares what the other may or may not become. And we may hear this mutual wearing as the voice of the river, of the current as sound of a smoothing of stones. It is agreeable, this washing of river over stone.
