A sea and a river

She draws strange comparison sometimes and that’s what she did today saying, “to say a sea is to river as solitude is to loneliness is pretty much true” . We were on our ferry back from an island nearby Dar-es salam city, the turquoise Dar sea was glimmering in its usual bright colors,with small waves riding here and there, and we were discussing my recent trip to turkey and the novel by Elif shafak i recently read on the life of Rumi, when she drew this comparison.
“And how come you make such a comparison, for i don’t even think there is a difference between loneliness and solitude” I asked.
“Well you see, the river is always moving in its absolute obligation to meet the sea, always lonely in her heart, while the sea is always static in his own solitude,waiting silently for everybody to absorb and be part of them,always watching,always welcoming, even to the sun who snatches away the rain drops from him. Such is a solitude one should look for, but then solitude is not something one can look far, for then it will be turning into loneliness”. “Are you getting me?”, she asked as if she woke up from a trance.
“A little” i said in my usual dumb way and said…. “I think i have to be in the shoes of water drops(if they have any) to feel all this …. but does that mean one has to go through the pain of being lonely before finding solitude?”
“I am afraid, Yes, the pain is the process of maturing your love, like wine waiting in the casks for years or like pregnant women going through the process, or the water drops going through all the streams and lakes to reach the sea. The only problem is you enjoy all that pain long after your go through it” she said and then added after little while ” but think about getting lucky of being picked up by the clouds just to re-live the whole love again, how fortunate those drops are”
‘Oh erty! You give out very little sugar in your pronouncements’, i stole a dialogue from a western movie and said. “I think in that case is the sea not just a dead being or an old man bragging about his youth adventures?”
“how can i let a piece of frozen ice hiding somewhere in the depth of high mountains to understand what it is, to be a sea…” she joked. and continued, ” you have to be a river first to understand the heart of the sea, or perhaps a small side-stream first longing to join a river, or perhaps be part of the water drops falling together from melting snow, or perhaps the lonely drop running towards that drop zone…. for right now you are just seeing these drops leaving for their long and destined journey… you have to go a long way my dear “

“I think i need to have a lot of sun as well to melt me as well in that case” ….

“yes, off-course! the good thing is that the morning is already there for you, and may Shams be with you too… “

We decided to visit the nearby river very soon to contemplate and see the river moving from loneliness to solitude