Living like water

What would it feel like if we could just live life like water? Water, they say, has no enemy.  It has no legs, yet when it becomes a stream, it can travel miles and miles without the aid of a compass. It knows when to merge with a river. The river knows which ocean to dump its contents.  Water knows its bearing. Water does not talk, yet when an ocean produces waves, you can hear the sound as it moves across the surface of the ocean.

When water becomes a stream and decides to make its journey to a river, nothing can stop it from getting to the river. When the stream becomes a river and decides to make its journey to an ocean, no human power can prevent it from getting to the ocean. This is because; quoting Lao Tzu, “nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water”. When a stream or a river meets any obstacle, it has the patience of God. It can wait for as long it takes to overcome the obstacle. No matter how long the waiting, it does not surrender. It does not give in or give up.  Water remains water. It does not need to alter its ego to proof that it is water. It does not need to change its characteristic to overcome the barrier. It just continues to be water until the obstructing nature surrenders to the supernatural power of water. Because it knows its destination, water does not return to its origin. It keeps going until its mission is accomplished.

Water has no hands, yet it can touch lives. Our lives depend on it. Biologically, an average adult body is 50 to 65 percent water. For children, it is even more. You need water to drink. You need water to clean yourself and your household stuff. You need water to grow your farm produce. You need water to cook. You need water to do just about anything. There is no life without water, and yet water does not seek your approval to be water. It does not introduce itself to you as water. It does not even matter what name you may call it. It will remain what it is. It does not need to act as if it is water, because it is.

Living life like water is about living on purpose. It is about living flexibly. It is about living patiently. It is about living peacefully within your environment. It is about knowing the meaning of your life and living it meaningfully.  It is about your ability to keep making progress in your life by patiently and continuously working around the things you cannot understand in life. It is about remaining who you are at all times.  As water does not need to be something else in order to fulfil its role, so also you do not need to be any other person in order to fulfil your destiny. Water does not need to announce itself was water before you know it is water. So also, you do not need to announce who you are. What you do or not do tells people who you are. What you say makes people to understand who you are. They say action speaks louder than voice.   

As water has no enemy, so you do not have any enemy. Making water an enemy is counterproductive. People who attempt to make water their enemy only find themselves drowning in water.  As water does not need anyone in order to fulfil its multifaceted roles, so you do not need anyone in order to fulfil all your own roles in life. As people go out in search of water whenever they need it for one purpose or another, so people who need you will go out searching for you. As the supply of water is inexhaustible in the ocean, so you become an source of inexhaustible supplier of good things to others. Only that you must remain who you are. Remaining who you are means doing whatever you best know how to do.

When water becomes a stream, it learns how to reach its destination by meandering and ultimately ending up merging with a river. In the same way, you can become whatever you want in life by learning whatever new skills you need to learn in order for you to take the next step towards reaching your final destination. When water becomes a river, it learns to exercise a lot of patience in overcoming major obstacles on its way to the ocean. In the same way, you can learn to be as patient as a vulture when pursuing a highly challenging but ultimately rewarding goal. When water becomes a river, it learns the art of yielding to its natural environment as it makes its journey to the ocean. In the same way, you can learn to understand and align yourself with the natural environments that surround that which you are seeking to do, have or be.

How can we live like water? What is the essence of living like water? Water has no ego. It is flexible. It is yielding. Above all, water has no enemy. Living like water is the ultimate of living a life in the balance.