garbage is garbage

i was telling hwubby about my difficult meditation when i remember a metaphor.

say you are sitting by a river. you watch the clear, cool, sparkling water streaming by. then you notice stuff coming down from the upstream. one thing after another. you can see some broken branches, rotting leaves, rocks, even a dead animal. what do you do? do you get into the river to find out what exactly are there in the garbage? no. you stay where you are, let them go by and out of your sight. garbage is garbage. no need to poke your head into it and go through its contents.

thoughts, emotions in meditation are like that. debris in the river. let it go. turn my awareness back to the sparkling river of the breath.