“Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.”
― Lao Tzu
He watched the river flow, gently across the land, so fluid so fast, over the river bed, the rocks, and the sand. He saw the waters gently move every bit of leaf, plant, pebble, and sand as if it were a giant watery hand. He noticed that the rocks all looked so smooth as if there were polished and polished over and over again, by some invisible watery hand.
Water that was so soft was so powerful and able to break the hardest rock over time. The largest boulders were rounder, smoother, and more polished now. Those boulders reflected the sunlight like large round grey mirrors. The sharpest rocks that were in the river were now not so sharp after all this time. It seemed that every sharp and tough rock was now completely different from the way it used to be when it first arrived. The gentle flow and the watery hands of the river had made almost every obstruction rounder and smoother now. Every polished rock and every smooth surface on the river bed and besides that river was transformed by the presence of that flowing force of nature. The waters of nature keep flowing, keep flowing, every moving and always changing everything that it touches.
He thought about his own life and about the type of person he used to be, timid and introverted, till he faced tough situations in life and he decided that he had to change. The best quote he heard was that of Lao Tzu the ancient Chinese philosopher, which was to be like water that was soft and which could break down the toughest rock over time. That which is soft is also strong. This was a great quote and one that he adopted as a teenager. He was transformed into a young man who could be as soft and strong as water in a situation and then as tough and unyielding as a rock when he needed to stand up for what he believed in life. The rock that will not move under any force, the soft-flowing waters that can wear down even the hardest objects, were images of power that he visualized in his mind when things got difficult in life. The best course of action to choose, like a rock in the water or the water that wears down the rock.
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