Stones for Skipping, Stepping, Sliding

I stood on edge of stream crystal clear and cobbled, with stones jagged and rough, smooth flat and rounded. How could this rumbled jumble or rocks and gravel have got there? Which stone was tossed and thrown? Which was skipped there by tiny hands trying for eight skips or more? Which was placed strategically in a row of stepping stones for dry-feet to cross the stream to the other side? Which stones slid and bounced there, from way upstream, carried by the last raging snow-melt torrent? My path through life has similar ups and downs, with slips and slides, rocks and gravel, all rumbled and jumbled together. With the legacies of the ways I've found to skip, step and slide, to reach my milestones in the sinuous stream of life, riddled with scattered stones.