River Stories: Euphrates

Euphrates (river). Divine Science encompassing the universe and man; the true idea of God; a type 
 of the glory which is to come; metaphysics taking the place of physics; the reign of righteousness.

 The atmosphere of human belief before it accepts sin, sickness, or death; a state of mortal thought,
                         the only error of which is limitation; finity; the opposite of infinity.
              (from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p. 586)

A lot of the lessons learned while kayaking on whitewater rivers were about facing down fear, overcoming limitations, and gaining a pure and joyful sense of dominion and grace with others equally willing to take on new challenges.  Here are a couple of Euphrates type lessons about universal truth and being alert to a limiting mentality -  learned when racing a national race on the Nantahala River in Tennessee.

A formal complaint was going to be made to the race course architect.  Some of the best whitewater paddlers in the world were doing their trial runs on the race course set over a sretch of whitewater river, with the main team starting first.  Each paddler struggled to make the seemingly impossible moves over a certain set of gates placed over one of the river's drops.  People got angry.  These top paddlers had a lot of clout, and it would have been an embarrassment if the course had to be changed.  Then, the junior team had its turn.  And when one of the first paddlers went through the whole sequence of gates - fast and clean, mouths dropped. 

After it was seen that one person could do it, others found that they could as well.  The race course was not changed and the race went on.  Those on the main team were now going through each of the gates clean - no touches.

In looking back on this experience, it was obvious that in the first, and ironically more experienced group, there was an atmosphere of thought that accepted failure, and it was justified and played out by all those who would agree.  No one could do the gate sequence right.  But, the junior team was never a part of the conversation.  They didn't know any better!  So when their turn came to do their trial runs, nothing was stopping them. They claimed the "glory" so to speak, and taught us all a lesson to challenge limitations, and not accept them under any conditions.

What they proved for themselves, they proved for us all.

This little scenario on the river taught me to be alert to my own mental environment, to question what I am accepting in my thought.  When I challenge limitations, I grow.  But even more important, I learned that my victory in overcoming limitations becomes everyone's victory. 

The first part of the definition of the Euphrates talks about divine Science encompassing the universe and man.  How glorious it is to know that every healing we have, every insight into God's love,  every inspired prayer, is an expression of divine Science - and this encompasses the universe and each of us.  And that is just a tip of the iceberg "of the glory which is to come."

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