I've met them too late, too late where I made hasty decisions and took the course that the rest of the current was flowing in. I should've known better. This course is comfortable and fine, it's tried and true, but it ends in a space that I'm not sure I want to be. A clear lake, large and vast, with tan sands and wildlife constantly coming to it, perhaps my contribution would make it back to another river and back out again, cycling constantly in and out, but there's no guarantee. But this lake, it's safe, it's clean and clear and has life inside and out; it experiences the changing seasons and the ever beautiful ebb and flow of familiarity.
If I took my own way, let the air change my course, I could end up in the ocean. Gargantuan and teeming with life and possibilities. The salt serves another purpose, nourishes another system. There's no seasons, but whole biomes that are accessible and varying. The surroundings able to be changed in a moment, adding complexities to everything I touch, rather than the being changes with a purpose. The depth, the gravity, the pressure, the change. I love change, but the decisions have been made, contrary to my certainty.
The irony of my need for stability but lust for movement when they were placed so carefully in my path. The counter to balance me in all aspects, both weights placed during turbulent times that had taken any amount of control away from me, stunting my ability to metabolize my emotions organically, but they provided exactly what I needed, as the water bearer. The air I needed to nourish my flow, and the ground for the flow to nourish in return, and regenerate into a breath of oxygen I didn't know I needed.