Water is the key: Water is a key ingredient of life, without water you cannot survive. Life always comes to the river, for thousands and thousands of years whether it was a great jungle city or a small river town. But life has changed these days, you no longer need to live next to the river to hunt for food, to grow crops, use its water to bathe or use the river to travel with ease. Now there are wells to tap large resources of water underground. Pipes and pumps to carry this water hundreds of miles in every direction, from your kitchen sink, to farm irrigation, to the shower in your bathroom. No need or reason to go to the rivers shore. Is this energy of life the energy of the river missing from your life?

Energy of life: Although the energy of life cannot be seen, its effect can be felt in all forms of life. Every person and object has this energy of life. The river has energy also, but a rivers energy is greater than any one object because it creates a connection. The river is a complex conductor of energy, it connects all forms of life which connect with the river. Connecting the energies of all life along its pathway for hundreds if not thousand of miles. If you connect with the river you will connect with this energy. This connecting energy of the river is the life force of everything on this planet.

The hot dry desert: In June of 1999 the Arizona desert was suffering from a drought, it had not rained in months even the cacti were shriveling up and dying. I had decided to drive to Bend Oregon to shoot a snow board point of view photograph I had been working on but had not quite figured out during the winter months in Arizona. MT Bachelor outside of Bend, is one one of the last Ski resorts to close for the season remaining open until the end of June.
The river out my window: After writing this river concept for the book for the last few months it was reassuring to see the river outside my window as I traveled 1200 miles to Bend. Through beautiful valleys filled with smells of green I had not experienced before, the river twisted and turned parallel to my pathway. This was my chosen pathway and the river was there to tell me I had made the correct choice. In Utah, it started as the East Fork of the Virgin River and I followed the Snake River for a while through Idaho. When I finally arrived in Bend Oregon it was the Deshutes river, which was fed by melted ice cold snow from Mount Bachelor.
Where are the rivers in your life? Have you connected with the energy of the river lately?

Connect with the reality of the river: After working on the snow boarding point of view photographs all morning the snow would begin to melt, which would end shooting for the day. I would head back to the hotel for a break and have something to eat, then I would drive down to the Deschutes River to ride along the rivers edge. I did not expect to hear the river but the force of this great river over volcanic rock was making a constant powerful roar. Being from the desert, I had not experienced a river like this, it was amazing to listen as the water cascaded over small waterfalls of jagged brown rock. The snow was too heavy and would not fly off the side of the board for the shot I was trying create at MT. Bachelor, so so I decided to head back to the heat of the desert. On my last day in Bend I went on a long ride along the Deschutes River. I thought if I really wanted to connect with this energy of the river, maybe at the very least, I should stick my foot in the river to be connected with all the energy flowing in there. You have to take into account we don't have huge rivers like this in Arizona. Now whenever I see a great river I want to feel this connected energy, I want to feel the life of the river. This energy field travels for hundreds of miles, until the river runs down to the ocean. Next time you see a great river give it a try and maybe you will feel what I am talking about. We don't have huge rivers like this in Arizona.

PS. Be careful if you get close to the river it might just take you in the direction you need to go.