Looking down on the creek from the bridge, you can see so much more than when you stand on its banks, peering through the tangle of weeds and trees.

You can watch the water flow from far upstream, skirt the little island, dance around the rocks or bubble over them. You can see its shallows and its depths and understand how both are a part of it all, and how the creek and the rocks and the trees are all a part of some great conversation that includes it all.

You can watch the water flow downstream, wiser with every meter, richer with stories than it ever was before.

It’s sort of like us.

What often looks so narrow and tangled becomes so beautiful and whole when you take a higher view.