Learning to go with the flow

Working at The River Center, it seems appropriate to talk about going with the flow. Who hasn’t thrown a stick into the river or stream to watch it make its way downstream? It catches on a rock until a current sends it on its way again, spinning in circles, stopping for a moment in a quiet spot, before continuing down the stream and around the corner. Sometimes it feels like we are a stick in the current, spinning, stopping, speeding along, caught up in the river’s flow.

No big deal?
I had an opportunity a week ago to see our rivers and streams overflowing. My husband and I got caught in the flash floods around Swanzey. We had driven over from Dublin in the rain and picked up take out to share with visiting family. As we know, we have had a lot of rain lately so no big deal.

Except it was a big deal in the Swanzey area. We tried different routes back to the cottage and encountered closed roads, turned around, tried another way only to find yet another impassable road. A few places had fire trucks blocking the roads. We drove through gushing streams that were running down driveways and across the road. We saw pavement that had crumbled. Faces and cars were becoming familiar as we were all trying to figure out how to get where we wanted to go. Fire and Rescue personnel and vehicles were everywhere – main roads, dirt roads, wherever needed. And the rain kept coming.

When we almost made it to our destination, we had to park the car, grab the take-out (we weren’t leaving that behind!) and walk the last half mile to the family. This involved wading through newly formed streams, lots of mud, and walking around newly exposed rocks. And then the power was out.

Building positive memories
Three young children, five adults, a large dog, and take-out. We were out of the pouring rain, we were together, and the food was amazingly still warm (I had tucked it in an insulated container- a proud moment for me….). We located flashlights and candles, and dug out the paper plates. We were OK. The driveway can be repaired (the next day’s job), the power came back on the same evening, and the rain will did eventually stop.

For many, those flash floods created much more damage to property. There will be many throughout the Monadnock who will be working hard to repair the damage done to roads, homes, driveways, and much more for some time to come.

As I told friends who were checking in on us, we were OK and hopefully we were building positive memories. Sometimes they don’t involve visits to Disney. Sometimes memories are built during those times when you just have to go with the flow.

Rio the Owl
Speaking of rivers, we have a name for our new mascot for The River Center. After soliciting votes from our community, our mascot is Rio, the owl. Rio means river. So appropriate. Thank you for helping us with finding just the right name.

So Rio and I are wishing you a wonderful summer filled with lots of adventures that just might mean going with the flow. To learn more about The River Center, go to rivercenternh.org.