Just Like the River I've Been Running
I made you something. It's free.
About a month ago, I sat in (online) circle listening intently. I heard words, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, quoted. Words about creativity, and women, the forces that flow through us and the deep river that feeds it all.
Songs of rivers have been running through my mind ever since.
I was reminded of the nature of rivers. The ways they can be blocked, misdirected or contaminated. The ways they can be unblocked, return to their true course, run clear again, once the contamination is removed. I was reminded of all they represent.
Take me to your river, I wanna go.
That line from River by Leon Bridges is what started it. Round and round in my head it circled, followed a few days later by Down to the River to Pray by Alison Krauss.
Oh sisters, let's go down, down in the river to pray.
It didn't stop there. Sam Cooke popped into my mind crooning about his birth, by the river, in a little tent and how he's been running, like that river, ever since.
As a Woman Who Wanders, that means something to me. Have I been running like a river? Is there any other way to live? Am I still tripping over myself, rushing rapidly over rocks on a mountainside or am I learning to meander gently to the sea?
I don’t know if it’s just me and my running-like-a-river nature but songs with river lyrics and songs with river titles seem to be everywhere.
After four weeks of river-song bombardment I had no choice but to make you a mixtape. I hope you like it. I hope it helps you to flow gently. I hope it supports movement and course correction and clarity.
These are the river songs that exist in my memory. The fact that I gathered them together so easily makes me think there must be loads more. Is there a river song I've missed that you'd add?
Looking at this playlist it's almost entirely American artists. Non-american English speakers - are there any non-American river songs you can think of?
These are also all in the English language (bar the instrumental track). Do you speak a language that uses another word for river and do you know any river songs in that language? Please share!
P.S. This essay is brought to you (in part) through the encouragement and accountability of
and her 24 Essays Club over on Sparkle on Substack! There’s plenty of time to join in.
The Alison Krauss song! I haven't heard it in so long. Actually, I only know some country-ish cover and never heard the original (if this is it?) before. How lovely to hear it again after having forgotten about it completely.
That felt like home to me! Something about my own self. Thank you for writing this.