Row, Row, Row Your Boat

When I was a child, the nuns used to teach us to sing in round, using the song, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” The nuns didn’t teach us the meaning of the words. But years later, I found out their meaning when I read Row, Row, Row Your Boat: A Guide for Living Life in the Divine Flow by Steven Lane Taylor. Taylor had a brief, but profound mystical experience when he was fourteen that instilled a lifelong interest in spirituality. His interpretation of the song follows the three pillars taught at www.awarenessnow.com and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpEddc-IJl6113tM7hVg0_Q, which confirms that The Way can be intuited by anyone on the spiritual path. The following interpretation of the stanzas is what I gleaned from reading the book:

Row, row, row your boat

Your body is a boat or vehicle that carries you. You are not your body or ego. You are so much more. Rowing involves energy and direction. Most people expend a lot of energy rowing in the wrong direction mainly due to identification with the body or ego and their needs, wants, and sense of lack or not being enough or having enough. They also are driven by the winds and tides of events, and, sometimes, the boat gets swamped with water (emotions).

Gently down the stream

The stream is the sequence of life events that occur, sooner or later, according to our predestined divine plan. We can either resist them and try to row against the current or gently go with the flow. Sometimes, we go through rapids or over waterfalls and it can be frightening or exciting, depending on whether you resist it or accept it. Other times, it's very placid. Whatever happens, we meditate and attune with the divine flow to get guidance on our next steps or where to row with the flow. Your ego may decide it doesn't want to go with the flow and go down some side channel in search of wealth, fame, etc. You may get lost, but the Universe, like an unerring GPS, will guide you back to your stream. Eventually, your stream of life emerges with the ocean of being, toward which all life streams are headed. But before that point, you can realize that you're already connected with the infinite ocean and that you already have everything you could possibly desire.

Merrily, merrily, merrily

When you realize that you’re not your body or ego, accept that events are unfolding exactly as they should, and that you are whole, have all you could possibly desire, and are already one with the ocean of being, life is bliss. You begin to have synchronistic experiences, and miracles of abundance and healing happen.

Life is but a dream.

Then you wake up and realize that material existence is just a dream and you and everyone else are just characters in the dream. You can also view it as a dramatic play that you and the people in your life (your soul group) composed before embodying. We all have roles to play in this morality play. Most people so identify with their characters that it's hard for them to wake up, and they wake up only when their boats crash into rocks or spring a leak. But it’s possible for anyone to wake up if they're given the tools and knowledge.

Happy rowing!