Be like water

May 24, 2025

“Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield.”
— Laozi

We live in a world that rewards noise, speed, and control.
But for over two thousand years, the wisest minds of ancient China gave us a different blueprint:
Be like water.

Water Is Strong Because It Yields

In the Dao De Jing, Laozi writes:

“Nothing in the world is softer than water.
Yet nothing can surpass it in overcoming the hard.”

We often think strength means resistance—pushing, grinding, overcoming. But water teaches something different: yielding without giving up.
It doesn’t resist the rock. It flows around it.
And slowly, quietly, it reshapes the landscape.

This is what Taoism calls wu wei—non-forcing, acting in alignment with the flow instead of against it.
In personal growth, this means: stop battling life. Work with it. Listen. Adjust. Flow.

Water Takes the Low Path

In Chapter 8 of the Dao De Jing, we read:

“The highest good is like water.
It nourishes all things without trying to.
It settles in places that others avoid.
Therefore it is close to the Dao.”

Water never tries to impress. It never competes.
It goes to the lowest place—and from there, it gives life to all things.

This is the power of humility.
Not thinking less of yourself, but needing less from others.
Water doesn’t announce itself. It just flows—and everything around it changes.

Ask yourself: Where in your life can you stop striving and start serving?
What would it feel like to be deeply useful without needing to be seen?

Water Is Always Itself—Yet Always Changing

In the Zhuangzi, the Daoist master tells a story of a man who jumps into a waterfall and survives. People think he’s a god.
But he says:

“I go down with the currents and come up with the eddies.
I let the water carry me. I follow the flow.”

This is the Taoist vision of true freedom. Not in controlling everything, but in trusting the pattern beneath the surface.

Water adapts without losing its nature. Whether in a teacup, a river, or a storm, it remains water.

Can you say the same about yourself?
Can you stay rooted in who you are, no matter the shape your life takes?

Water Doesn’t Rush

Water moves at its own pace.
It doesn’t ask for permission. It doesn’t fear delay.

It rains when it rains.
It floods when it must.
It carves canyons over centuries.

In Taoist thought, this is the rhythm of nature—the unfolding of things in their own time.
Rushing is mistrust.
Slowness is a kind of inner faith.

So breathe.
Let your life unfold, not just happen.

Water Nourishes Without Effort

The most powerful truth: water gives life, and asks for nothing.

It flows into roots. It fills our cells. It evaporates, then returns again.
Always giving. Never asking. Never holding.

This is the secret of quiet presence.
You don’t have to do more. You have to be more real.
Trust that your presence, if grounded and true, will nourish those around you—just like water.

Be gentle. Be persistent. Be clear.
And one day, you’ll look back and see—
you didn’t conquer life.
You shaped it.