The River Cannot Go Back
by Kahlil Gibran

[Listen to Audio!]

It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.

Share the Wisdom:

Latest Community Insights

The River Cannot Go Back What does becoming the ocean mean to you? Can you share an experience of a time you faced the fear of losing who you were, only to enter into an identity that was much greater than you could imagine? What helps you shed your riverhood and embrace your oceanhood in every moment?

Jagdish P Dave wrote: Are there two separate identities-the river identity and the ocean identity? Or is there One identity? Outwardly, there appearstwo identities like the river and the ocean. But when they embrace each o...

Mariette Fourmeaux wrote: Becoming the ocean means to surrender, to release the river banks that have held me confined and restricted. The river banks that have tried to define me and control me. I finally break free and surre...

David Doane wrote: The River Cannot Go Back is a beautiful statement by Gibran. Becoming an ocean means to me returning fully to that from which I came. I am a wave of being in the ocean of Being. I've had times of ...

Share/Read Your Reflections