A River: The Thread That Binds

Life is an adventure. Some things we can control, other experiences randomly happen. We can choose the environment, however, and the Deschutes River located in Central Oregon has had a significant impact on my life. Through poems, essays, and photographs with their captions, experiences will be shared in hopes that the reader can relate to shared feelings or vicariously enjoy a most refreshing immersion.

Not all life's happenings are pleasant or have a happy ending. The roller coaster of life is something we all share. But we find buffers that sustain us and certainly the natural world, particularly a special river, can help keep our keel headed in the right direction.

Even though this is a personal sharing, most of the experienced feelings are universal. Whether the reader enjoys an escape while reposed in an armchair, or is moved to make some plans to break out of the humdrum, or perhaps even finds some healing in the reading experience, my efforts will be fulfilled.

Leland "Bud" Beamer was raised in Iowa and attended Cornell College and the University of Iowa School of Medicine. After his internship in Portland, Oregon, he spent two years as the sole physician on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Central Oregon. The Deschutes River forms the forty mile eastern border of the Reservation. After a family practice residency and surgical training, he was a family doctor, surgeon and ER physician in Madras, Oregon, for 40 years. He is currently chief medical officer at Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Madras.He still has roots in Iowa, but his love of Central Oregon and all of the natural settingsand outdoor activities have provided a marvelous balance of recreational and professionalactivities.Issues involving the early childhood period are of utmost importance to him. His book "theBaby and the Seed" is an illustrative work on the importance of love and nurturing in thiscritical period.