Be Like Water

Today’s walk was a solitary one. The water was cool and the air was warm. The surf was larger than usual, and the number of surfers were too.  The warm weather had brought out a large number of people – walking themselves, their partners, their kids, their dogs.

The waves crashing on the shore seemed felt like the emotional waves I ‘ve been hit by the last few weeks: at work, at home, with friends.  Most times, I’ve felt compelled to be like like the rocks that the waves crash on. The rocks don’t seem to be affected when a few – or even a hundred – waves hit them, & the waves will soon stop, right?

I sat down for a moment to watch the waves roll ashore, and to give my legs a little break, when I took this picture.

Looking at the picture as I sat down to write, Bruce Lee’s words again came to mind:

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”