A trickle of water doesn’t wear away granite… in time enough.
I heard this at a seminar the other day and I wanted to explore it further. So I looked up our favourite encyclopaedia of sorts…Mr Google.
You may be aware of different scales used for hardness, Mohs, Rockwell, etcetera.
Living here in the Wasatch Mountains, close to the Rocky Mountains in North America, there is a lot of natural hard granite here. Many buildings are made from it and even vaults cut into it.
Granite isn’t the hardest of stones by any means but have you ever tried to break it up with a pick or rock/crow bar?... I have, and it’s tough.
The inference here is that if you only do a little bit compared to a high flowing river or fire hose. Doing a bit here and there or say one deal a month, or talk to one person once a week, write one paragraph of your book once a week, mow 3 feet of grass, paint one stroke etcetera etcetera.
Sure, you’ll achieve things and some tasks will get completed but will it be in time.
An excellent article I came across was one in the National Geographic about erosion of rocks… see below of how a man could accurately measure erosion in a 147 year timeframe of the lighthouse on the coastline.
Erosion by Water
Moving water is the major agent of erosion. Rain carries away bits of soil and slowly washes away rock fragments. Rushing streams and rivers wear away their banks, creating larger and larger valleys. In a span of about 5 million years, the Colorado River cut deeper and deeper into the land in what is now the U.S. state of Arizona. It eventually formed the Grand Canyon, which is more than 1,600 meters (1 mile) deep and as much as 29 kilometres (18 miles) wide in some places.
Erosion by water changes the shape of coastlines. Waves constantly crash against shores. They pound rocks into pebbles and reduce pebbles to sand. Water sometimes takes sand away from beaches. This moves the coastline farther inland.
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was built in 1870, on the Outer Banks, a series of islands off the coast of the U.S. state of North Carolina. At the time, the lighthouse was nearly 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) from the ocean. Over time, however, the ocean eroded most of the beach near the lighthouse. By 1999, the surf endangered the structure. Many people thought it would collapse during a strong storm. The lighthouse was moved 880 meters (2,900 feet) inland.
Do we have 147 years to accomplish our goals, our purpose, our love for others? Last time I checked there is only a handful of people that live over 100 years of age…in fact the oldest documented living is 117 year old person in Jamaica and another in Japan.
147 years to move a coastline 1,000m (3,300 feet) quite an effort from powerful waves and a mighty ocean of water force pounding the shoreline.
To wear away granite…the hard things in life, the things that set you up for an awesome life, one must turn on their own firehose, get their motivation going, push themselves to accomplish what they want their life to be, not what they need their life to be.
Are you turning your hose all the way on? Or are you saying and doing the minimum to get by? Do you want to look back in years to come and say ‘wow, what a ride, look what I’ve done, look what I’ve accomplished, look how I’ve made a difference to my life, my family’s life, my friends lives….. I am not proud, I am pleased and I am happy.
Ref:
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/erosion/