River Therapy

I live in a city. A big city. One that feels bigger every day. The busyness of it clings to me, with the sights and sounds bombarding me from all angles. It’s constant. And this time of year, it’s amplified. It’s that in-between time before the AC has to be on and we sleep with our windows open to get a pleasant breeze blowing through our small home. But it also sends the dissonant sounds of city nights– sirens, cars driving too fast, train horns, and the shrieks of random people and barking dogs. This is city life.

For me, city life has a way of making me feel trapped, crowded and tense. The constant commotion keeps my mind racing with a perpetual sense of being unsettled. I live here because this is where I built my small business. My business needed a growing city and we chose this one. My only escape is getting outside… to the real outside where there is space, big skies.  Where the noises of the city are replaced by sounds of a flowing river. It’s being outside that has become a form of therapy which allows me to reset and find peace.

Going on five years now, I’ve been guiding and escaping city life. Between 30 to 40 days a year I take anglers down the river, sharing the space that allows me to forget the noise and stress of city life. This sacred, peaceful space is something that I am excited to share with others. Once folks step into the boat, they seem to enter into an altered consciousness. The sedative sounds of the river drowns out the pressures of the past week.

The countless meetings and to-do lists are washed away and replaced with thoughts of catching fish and the peaceful hum of nature reminding us that this is where we are supposed to be. That this is therapy. Sometimes it’s group therapy, and other days it’s individual. I always return home with a clear mind and recharged soul, at least for a week or two.