“Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream,

Merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.“

It’s a rhyme we all know from our youngest days. If you have kids, you’re likely even more familiar with it, maybe unable to get it out of your head sometimes! 

Recently, as I hummed it with my son (we play a game where one of us hums a song for the other to guess), it struck me just how profound this simple rhyme really is.

Each of us is metaphorically rowing our own boat down the stream of life. Even when we’re part of a family or a team, there’s a sense of solitude in navigating our own journey. We meander through situations that may be turbulent or still, harrowing or calm, much like a river shifting from rapids to a serene mountain lake. And yet, with enough self-understanding and perspective, we all have the capacity to “gently” steer through—perhaps even to enjoy the ride.

That line, “merrily, merrily, merrily,” speaks to a joy that may often seem fleeting or circumstantial. But the possibility of genuine joy is always there, often just beneath the surface, waiting to emerge when our mind is calm and we’re centered. This sense of deep, abiding joy, like the merry melody of the song, can appear from nowhere and fill us with a grounded contentment.

And, of course, the line “life is but a dream” reminds us that our experiences, which seem so vivid and concrete, are also fluid and ephemeral. When we view life with clarity and openness, we see that things aren’t always as they seem. The “bad” moments aren’t always so terrible; our goals and desires may not be what we truly want; and beneath it all, there’s a divinely dreamlike quality to the way it all unfolds.

I know I’ll never hear this rhyme the same way again.

How about you?

What might change in your life and career if you “rowed the boat of your life” a bit more gently and merrily, all the while keeping in mind that it is all, indeed, but a dream?