--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I squatted by the water as it flowed over…" description: "\"“I squatted by the water as it flowed over the tumbled rocks, thought how far they must've come to have settled in the concrete channel, the stream cle..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/808/janet-fitch-717_fresh-water_i-squatted-by-the-water-as-it-flowed-ove_1909285.jpg" --- # I squatted by the water as it flowed over the tumbled… ![“I squatted by the water as it flowed over the tumbled rocks, thought how far they must've come to have settled in the concrete channel, the stream clear and melodious, the smell of fresh water. I didn't want to think about my mother anymore. I'd rather think about the way the willows and the…” quote by Janet Fitch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/808/janet-fitch-717_fresh-water_i-squatted-by-the-water-as-it-flowed-ove_1909285.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/808/janet-fitch-717_fresh-water_i-squatted-by-the-water-as-it-flowed-ove_1909285.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/808/janet-fitch-717_fresh-water_i-squatted-by-the-water-as-it-flowed-ove_1909285.jpg) > ““I squatted by the water as it flowed over the tumbled rocks, thought how far they must've come to have settled in the concrete channel, the stream clear and melodious, the smell of fresh water. I didn't want to think about my mother anymore. I'd rather think about the way the willows and the cottonwoods and palms broke their way through the concrete, growing right out of the flood control channel, how the river struggled to re-establish itself. A little silt was carried down, settled. A seed dropped into it, sprouted. Little roots shot downward. The next thing you had trees, shrubs, birds. My mother once wrote a poem about rivers. They were women, she wrote. Starting out small girls, tiny streams decorated with wildflowers. They were torrents, gouging paths through sheer granite, flinging themselves off cliffs, fearless and irresistible. Later, they grew fat servicable, broad slow curves carrying commerce and sewage, but in their unconscious depths catfish gorged, grew the size of barges, and in the hundred-year storms, they rose up, forgetting the promises they made, the wedding vows, and drowned everything for miles around. Finally they gave out, birth-emptied, malarial, into a fan of swamps that met the ocean. ”” [Janet Fitch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-fitch/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The passage uses a river as a metaphor for personal growth, loss, and the cyclical nature of life, contrasting natural resilience with human-made constraints. **In simple terms:** A river symbolizes life's changes and challenges. Key Takeaway Embrace change and let growth flow. Themes nature growth memory resilience environment Mood reflective melancholic hopeful Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - grieving a loved one - urban planning - environmental restoration - personal reflection - creative writing Key Concepts metaphor cycle human impact ecology Questions to Reflect On - How do you see your own life as a river? - What can we learn from nature’s adaptability? A Different Perspective The metaphor may oversimplify complex emotional experiences. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Fresh water](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fresh-water/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Wedding vows](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wedding-vows/) ## Related quotes > [“He was nothing but a conduit, after all, and there isn't a culvert in the world that remembers the water flowed through it once…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-king/he-was-nothing-but-a-conduit-after-all-and-there-isn-t-a-culvert-in/) [Stephen King](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-king/) > [“Superb accuracy in water measurement, Jessica thought. 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Men who loaded trains, emergency…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-fitch/if-i-were-a-poet-that-s-what-i-d-write-about-people-who-worked-in-the/) [Janet Fitch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-fitch/) > [“what was the point in creating something that was so futile and so precious? everything beautiful was like that. a little bit of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-fitch/what-was-the-point-in-creating-something-that-was-so-futile-and-so/) [Janet Fitch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-fitch/) > [“We received our coloring from Norsemen. Hairy savages who hacked their gods to pieces and hung the flesh from trees. We are the ones…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-fitch/we-received-our-coloring-from-norsemen-hairy-savages-who-hacked-their/) [Janet Fitch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-fitch/) > [¨Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. 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I'd rather think about the way the willows and the cottonwoods and palms broke their way through the concrete, growing right out of the flood control channel, how the river struggled to re-establish itself. A little silt was carried down, settled. A seed dropped into it, sprouted. Little roots shot downward. The next thing you had trees, shrubs, birds. My mother once wrote a poem about rivers. They were women, she wrote. Starting out small girls, tiny streams decorated with wildflowers. They were torrents, gouging paths through sheer granite, flinging themselves off cliffs, fearless and irresistible. Later, they grew fat servicable, broad slow curves carrying commerce and sewage, but in their unconscious depths catfish gorged, grew the size of barges, and in the hundred-year storms, they rose up, forgetting the promises they made, the wedding vows, and drowned everything for miles around. 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