Knowing when

I can remember one of my professors in grad school once saying:

 "You have to know when to stand tall like mountain, and when to flow like river".

I've always liked this idea.  It is a nice natural image to tie to the notion that it is important to be both rigid and flexible, strong and weak, firm and malleable. It is an homage to the opposites that make us whole beings. I've been thinking a lot about this lately.

In addition to relating to the idea of the yin/yang within all of us, it reminds me of the serenity prayer:

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

The courage to change the things I can

And the wisdom to know the difference

This is yet another thought that I have always liked. This prayer is typically associated with AA and those in recovery.  Though I've never been in recovery or needed the prayer to get myself through the day or anything, it is something to which I often return. Again, referring to the idea that sometimes we must be brave and sometimes we must be accepting, it is a powerful concept.

The "knowing when" is the interesting question. It is a question that I believe to not have an answer, because the knowing is always shifting. What one would stand tall like mountain for, might not be the same to another or even the same to that same person at a different time in life. Even the idea of knowing when to stand tall like mountain and when to flow like river itself is governed by its inherent respect for the opposites. Though it is a strong idea (like mountain), it is a shifting knowledge (like river) of it that must be employed.

Just like a mountain or a river, I think that is beautiful.