You had the right idea, Tina.

 My friend and I visited Weston Bend State Park, over the weekend. Both of us had been there before,  but certainly not recently. It's a beautiful woodsy spot, with overnight camping, meandering trails (some of them conveniently paved), an ancient tobacco barn, and a beautiful, high viewing spot, overlooking the fertile river valley. 

This overlook gives the viewer a panorama of golden, Autumn corn fields, roads, farm houses and a distant view of a long stretch of the Missouri River. Now, as you all know, or maybe don't know, the song lyric, "across the wide Missouri", is pretty darn accurate. The river is wide, but it is pretty long, too. The headwaters of the Missouri, are near Three Forks, Montana, and, I think I remember it as a bunch of little rivulets. It's possible to very easily walk across the entire river, hoping from rock to rock, across a very shallow, very cold series of streams. Then, after traveling down through Nebraska, the river chews a chunk off the Kansas rectangle and slips across the middle of Missouri, dumping into the mighty, muddy Mississippi River.

But, the most interesting fact about Weston Bend State Park, is the realization that this beautiful view was once very different. In fact, had that viewing spot been erected in 1804, you might have observed Lewis and Clark, poling and rowing up the fast flowing Missouri, toward the West Coast of the  Washington/Oregon Territory. But, the river isn't where it was, in 1804. The State of Missouri has conveniently provided park visitors, with a Missouri River Map, and its ever-changing course. One line on the map looks like a snake, then another line changes into a different snake and again and again. Before the U.S. Corps of Engineers got their hands and machines on the river, it changed course with every major flood. 

The Missouri River that once made Weston, Missouri a thriving river port, and a haven for commerce and the budding Tobacco industry, is now many miles from the edge of the town. Today, you can't even tell that this cute little tourist attraction was ever located on the wide Missouri River.

Talk about metaphors! The Missouri River and Weston Bend State Park are about life.  Are you able to change course, survive and keep rolling?

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Lord of all Creation: Life is a "Journey of Discovery". Life is a meandering, ever changing river. It's full of floods and soft flowing moments. Sometimes we have torrents, waterfalls, eddys and swift currents. Keep us "Rolling on the River".You are our constant. You never change.