The River

The River in our name is more than a body of water — it’s a living metaphor for the journey of life.

Rivers teach us about time and transformation. Sometimes they are turbulent, rushing and wild; sometimes they flow with quiet ease. They move around obstacles, carve new pathways, and carry the life force that nourishes all beings along their banks.

Born in hidden springs high in the mountains, rivers gather strength as they join with others — fed by storms and snowmelt, shaped by stone and soil, kissed by sunlight and shadow. They remind us that our own journeys are a weaving of twists, turns, still pools, and rapids… and that all are part of our becoming.

Here at East and West of the River Wellness, we honor this flow in all its forms — the mingling of traditions, the meeting of life experiences, the confluence of East and West, science and spirit, the seen and unseen. We believe that, like the river, each of us is called to keep moving toward the vastness that awaits — not to lose ourselves, but to become more fully part of the whole.

“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.
~Khalil Gibran”