The Ways of Water: Stillness

Still water is not listless or stagnant. There is energy there, life below, placid above. Rhythm and movement, hidden by depths, present yet out of sight. Gentle and tranquil, but still embodying all that water can so powerfully do. Surfaces, shapes by outer forces, constantly changing and shifting but never disturbed. Absorbing what touches it without changing its state. Alive, breathing, powerful, still.

There are many days where I think to myself: this is who I want to be. Perhaps, you too have wished for the calmness that water can so potently embody. This state is not one of impotence; it is a choice, controlled yet free. Finding this kind of homeostasis feels elusive and on most days, evasive.

Perhaps the journey to this inner sanctuary can be learned from the very substance that sustains us. Is there an education in the liquid that we often treat as an endless resource? What if, like rested water, we can find that duality? The outer calm and inner simmer. Not restless, but rested, while the mind ponders and savors all the colors of emotions that make us such unique creatures.

It’s not just water in stillness that offers lessons. It is water in motion, bursts of rainfall, dancing to the sounds of thunderous percussion and the most electric of light shows. Rivers that roll, chasing the earth and forcing solid rock to yield and change. Who can deny the power found in the way that water washes away a day’s worth of wariness? In all the ways that water rules us, it teaches us.

In this learning, we may find the way forward.

In our next lesson, we’ll ponder some of the most incredible formations of water: the wonders of precipitation.