A TALE OF PUDDLES AND RIVERS: Which One Would You Like To Be?

Water.

It takes on many different forms, as the great Bruce Lee once said:

“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.”

Now, you need to decide what form you are going to take in this crazy ride we call life…so…

Are you a puddle or a river?

The Puddle

No need for explanation here on what a puddle is…we all know.

But what does that have to do with living?

Simple.

A puddle is stagnant. Doesn’t move. Over time is collects bacteria and junk.

The only time a puddle grows is when another rain storm hits to fill it back up…it cannot do it on it’s own. Soon, after a little dry spell it dries up and goes away.

A puddle doesn’t breed sustainable life…just gunk, collecting whatever is washed into it.

Ever want to drink from a puddle in the yard or the street? Yeah…I didn’t think so.

Think about that when you don’t challenge yourself and your way of thinking. When you fall back into bad habits or bad thought processes.

You become stagnant, unmoving, maybe in a state of self pity or overthinking, blaming everyone and everything else for the reason why you are not moving forward.

You may become someone nobody wants to be around, because every problem never seems to have a solution…it’s just a constant state of complaining.

You become forever in need for someone or something to fill you back up because you lost the capacity to do it for yourself.

Sure, its nice for someone else to give you those compliments or the material items to make you feel special…but there is nothing you have inside moving you forward.

You’re just there.

Like a puddle.

We weren’t born to be stagnant. We weren’t born to just dry up and go away, never realizing our true potential.

There’s a better way to live…

The River

We also know what a river is.

You can probably hear what a river sounds like in your head as you read this right now.

Free flowing. Never stopping. breaking through and around barriers. Carrying things that come in contact with it…taking control.

Rivers move forward, never backward: and over the course of time and distance that moving forward creates a stronger current, using it’s barriers as a propellant rather than a deterrent.

Rivers are fed by surrounding bodies of water, but when you watch the power of some you wonder if they really need it to function?

Rivers also feed other bodies of water around them. Life flourishes in rivers…they are clean to drink from. In most instances…pure.

Flowing water doesn’t collect nearly as much bacteria because it’s always moving.

Think about your life as a river: moving forward, feeding off others but being strong enough to move on your own with that as an AID…not a pure life source.

In the process of receiving you are also giving back, whether it be to a community of friends or giving back to yourself.

You don’t let obstacles stop you in your path…you simply move around it and allow the experience to propel you forward; to simplify: YOU LEARN AS YOU MOVE FORWARD AND IT MAKES YOU STRONGER.

Others who come in contact with you grow…they are not just there to feed you so you can survive, you give back just as much if not more.

Rivers thrive…puddles just simply disappear without making a mark.

Rivers give back. Puddles take.

Rivers flow and are clean.

Puddles go nowhere and are…well…quite nasty most of the time.

In your life (and certainly mine) we have been both at one point or another: when you’re riding high and feeling unstoppable you feel like a river…on the days when you feel like a punching bag you just want to crawl up in a ball and become that puddle.

The secret, my friends, is you get to choose how long you decide to be either or.

Being one will keep you from being who you really want to be.

Choosing to be other will keep you moving forward to great new heights: only using what you left behind as a guide rather than an anchor weighing you down.

One is easier to be than the other…but easier, in this case, doesn’t always mean better.

Your short term decisions will affect your long term growth, or lack thereof.

Once again…this is for you to ponder.

Just something for you to analyze and tell yourself the truth if this is who or where you currently want to be.

This is a tale of puddles and rivers…which one is your story?