We are living 'neath the great Big Dipper
We are washed by the very same rain
We are swimming in the stream together
Some in power and some in pain
We can worship this ground we walk on
Cherishing the beings that we live beside
Loving spirits will live forever
We're all swimming to the other side.


I am alone and I am searching, hungering for answers in my time
I am balanced at the brink of wisdom, I'm impatient to receive a sign
I move forward with my senses open, imperfection be my pride
In humility I will listen, we're all swimming to the other side

On this journey of thoughts and feelings, binding intuition: my head, my heart
I am gathering the tools together, I'm preparing to do my part
All of those who have come before me band together to be my guides
Loving lessons that I will follow, we're all swimming to the other side

When we get there we'll discover all of the gifts we've been given to share
Have been with us since life's beginning and we never noticed they were there
We can balance at the brink of wisdom, never recognizing that we've arrived
Loving spirits will live together, we're all swimming to the other side



When I first heard this song, I was sitting in Union Church and the Grace sisters were singing it up front with two guitars and a banjo. My father’s comment afterward was that “it didn’t sound very religious.” Of course, my father is suspicious of most things in Union, since he thinks anyone who’s as enthusiastic and social as the pastor must be faking it. But my mother said she thought it fit in perfectly well with the service. We couldn’t hear the words very well from our pew in the back, and I think she interpreted the swimming part as a reference to crossing Jordan.

For me, the song is not about crossing Jordan, but it is very much about religion. Not about religion, precisely, but about spirituality. It’s about looking for answers. The words “balanced on the brink of wisdom” hit me in the stomach when I sang them the next day in Harmony Singing class. That’s exactly where I am now – I mostly know what I want to do and who I want to be, but I’m really lost as to how to get there. I’m figuring things out little by little, but often my goals seem so far away. My real goal, I think, is to become a creative, loving, and helpful adult. I guess this is where the second verse kicks in. I’m guessing Pat Humphries wrote it well after adolescence, but the song seems especially relevant to these years. Here we all are, balanced on the brink of wisdom (or sometimes not) and trying to get somewhere without really knowing where we’re going.

The third verse says that when we figure out where we’re going, we realize we’ve already got everything we need to get there. I don’t think I agree with that, though I guess something was needed to give the song a sort of conclusion. I do think that we’ve got most of what we need to make things work, but especially for teenagers it doesn’t work so easily. For one thing, we still need to go out and have a go at conquering the world before we can get to the other side of the river. (Now I’m getting into Joe Campbell.) I’m looking forward to that day when I’ll realize that I’m not on the brink of wisdom anymore, when I can stop swimming. Until then, the water’s fine and I’ll keep going.