Row… Row… Row your boat,
Gently down the stream,
Merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream
This is a nursery rhyme most of us would have sung when we were kids. I too continued to sing it to my children when they were young. Not did I ever once pause to understand the meaning of this simple rhyme.
I guess I do take a while to comprehend certain things. Not certain, but most things. Isn’t this message amazing and profound? How many of us take things so seriously, that we forget to enjoy life itself. Everything around us becomes so pressing and demanding that we hardly stop to ask ourselves whether this is really important.
Should I give so much priority for things that could have been allowed to have been ignored? Do I need to get so involved with all the actions I perform everyday that I forget to feel that I am alive. It takes someone’s death to remind me how vulnerable I am. I am reminded of the dreamlike state of this life. That death is a certainty!
This simple poem reminds me once more that I need to row my boat gently. Yes, gently down this stream of life. My boat is extremely fragile. I can’t allow it to rock too much lest I get drowned. At the same time it reminds me that this life is only a dream, so I need to row this boat of mine cheerfully too. At the end of the day, I too will become a dream……….
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1 comment:
There's another version some modern parents sing;
Row row row your boat along the jungle stream
If you see a crocodile, don't forget to scream.
Doesn't have the same ring somehow!!
But yes, so true.
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