The Healer Speaks at a Wedding

I was recently at a wedding ceremony. The bride and groom had elected to have everyone join on the banks of a local river. They intended that we should all get into boats and raft down the river, through some white-water rapids, to reach the beach where the ceremony would take place. Prior to our departure, a priestess called a blessing on the couple and the rafting. Malesh was asked to say a few words also. What he said speaks, I believe, to all of us:
“The bride and groom, in choosing this path to their marriage ceremony, remind us of an ancient teaching. The teaching is so ancient that no living person remembers its origin, yet it is so timely that it is aught at young age to every child in our culture – there is none here who has not heard it, though some have not chosen to regard it as a teaching.
“The teaching tells us to keep our oar in the water, to take responsibility for our lives and our actions, to work for the betterment of all. It tells us we have some control of our destiny and challenges us to exert that control. Yet it also reminds us that we are all on life’s stream, and that though we may alter our paths to make best use of the current, we cannot alter the current nor change the path of life’s stream.
“The teaching also reminds us that though we may stand on this place many times, we truly only pass this way once. We should pass with joy, making the most of each moment, experiencing the pleasure of the passage on the river of life.
“What is this ancient teaching? It goes like this:
Row, row, row your boat
Gently, down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily.
Life is but a dream.”