How Character is Like Water
The water we treasure today — for our health, spirit, life as we know it — is the same water that has always been. It is essential, elemental and timeless.
Water also changes states, driven on a large scale with energy from the sun, but always making its way back to a pure state, back to its foundation. Human beings love to interact and acknowledge the changes and states of water. We marvel at and play in snow. We enjoy the life-giving nature of rain. We love the metaphor of rivers. We swim, we drink, we bathe. We need it, and we enjoy it across the fullness of our lives.
Our character is like water — necessary for life and while subject to shifts, it essentially remains the same. The elements that make up our character — thoughts, emotions, moods, behaviors, intentions — twist and morph from day to day, moment to moment. And in the end, they fade and transform, returning us back to the baseline of our character.
In a moment, we might go ice cold when we feel unappreciated. Newly in love, we might describe ourselves as being in the clouds. With the endless changes and uncertainty wrought by 2020, many of us relate to often being in a fog. None of these are permanent states. Ice melts, clouds rain themselves out, fog lifts — all under the power of our reliable, life-giving sun.
Water is necessary for life; character is necessary for a good human life. Water can cleanse, heal and refresh. By focusing on your character — how you show up for other people, how your ethics influence the big and little decisions, where you look to for authority, etc. — you not only establish a foundation for a life of honor and worth, you will also discover that there are benefits that go above and beyond, just like water.
