Flow Don’t Force - Where the Water Leads. Lessons in Manifestation - Repackaged by a Spruit

Mid-50s — the age of reading glasses, creaky knees and unexpected existential crises. Walking along the river in the Johannesburg Botanical Garden this week, I watched the stream run from the top of the gardens by the Marks Park Sport Club, into Emmarentia Dam — calm, steady, effortless…. it made me think… it reminded me of a flow, of ease, and letting life unfold as it should.

After all our recent rain in Jo’burg this November month, every city spruit is moving fast — and I realised how much we struggle against what would carry us, if we simply let go. So much of life becomes heavy when we cling too tightly — to our timelines, our expectations, our fears. The river reminded me how powerful it is to want something, but without desperation. To desire it, but not need it.

It also reminded me that the present moment is where everything actually happens. When you’re truly here — not in yesterday, not in tomorrow — you start noticing the opportunities that were invisible when your mind was scattered.

And of course, rivers meet rocks. Obstacles are guaranteed. I have heard that what stands in the way can become the way — if we stop seeing resistance as punishment and start seeing it as shaping, strengthening, preparing. Just like the rough edges of a stone smoothed over time by water.

As I followed the bends in this little river, I felt that gentle nudge to remember that my peace isn’t determined by external things; it’s something I choose internally. When we stop reacting, or outsourcing our emotional state to circumstances, we move through the world with a softer, steadier kind of confidence.

And sometimes, like the water slowing in quiet pools, the wisest thing we can do is step back. Not every moment calls for action. There’s power in pausing, and trusting that after we’ve done our part, life will meet us halfway.

Gratitude works the same way — it shifts us instantly. When we pay attention to what’s already here, the whole energy of our life changes. Abundance expands when we appreciate what we have instead of obsessing over what’s missing. It’s a truth about emotional steadiness too — feeling our feelings without letting them control the direction of our day. Letting emotions inform us, not run us.

Somewhere between the reeds and the dam, in a moment of “nowness,” I felt that deep sense of “enoughness.” That quiet, rare feeling that life is already full, all my needs are met, even as we grow and evolve. 

The river flowing, trusting its nature to flow,  reminded me of me — the real, unfiltered me — because what’s meant for us can only reach us when we’re authentic, not when we’re performing - and maybe the most comforting thought of all: timing belongs to the natural rhythm of life. Just like the river reaches the dam in its own time, everything that’s meant for us arrives exactly when we’re ready for it.

Lightbulb moment: We don’t have to fight life — we can flow with it, appreciate it, roll with the punches… and grow, baby, grow.

Walking down a city spruit in the middle of Johannesburg.

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