“Between your fingers you a stone and throw it into flowing water. The effect may not be easy to see. There will be a small ripple where the stone breaks the surface and then a splash, muffled by the sound of the surrounding river. That’s all.
Throw a stone into a lake. The effect will be not only visible but far more lasting. The stone will disrupt the still waters. A circle will form where the stone hit the water, and in a flash that circle will multiply into another, then another. Before long the ripples caused by one plop will expand until they can be felt everywhere along the mirrored surface of the water. Only when the circles reach the shore will they stop and die out
If a stone hits a river, the river will treat it as yet another commotion is its already tumultuous course.Nothing unusual. Nothing unmanageable.
If a stone hits a lake, however, the lake will never be the same again.” Elif Safak
Most people spend their lives like a lake… they hide everything inside. They store it somewhere in the deep, fooling themselves that they are hiding it, keeping it save. They spend their lives without ever daring to search for something. Without trying to find their purpose. Every day resembles the one before that. Their lives seem like the steady water in a lake.
But life can’t stand stagnation. Some times goes by, and as there is always somebody to throw a stone in the lake, just to check what is gonna happen, life “throws” obstacles on the “path”. Just to give people a chance to be pushed away at the shore, where they can see from the side…where they can finally become conscious and give their best to stay away from the monotony that is taking away their strength!
Just like when you throw a stone…”The stone will disrupt the still waters. A circle will form where the stone hit the water, and in a flash that circle will multiply into another, then another. Before long the ripples caused by one plop will expand until they can be felt everywhere along the mirrored surface of the water. Only when the circles reach the shore will they stop and die out.”
It is the same with people… each hardship that we face, will at first form a small circle. But when we get scared, instead of facing it and looking it in the eyes, we usually run away… further to the second circle, to the third… the more we run, the bigger the circle becomes and the harder it is for us to cope with the situation. Until we are being pushed away on the shore. Where we get the opportunity to look in the horizon and see what is happening.
Unfortunately not too many people do it! Most just say on the shore trembling from fear. Trembling from fear, remembering the moment, when the stone fell in the steady water”. Usually they find the strength to just go back , where they were and then everything goes on the same, old way…until another hardship is being “thrown”.
There are people like rivers…people for whom today is never the same as it was yesterday. Every day is just one more opportunity, one more chance to get the know the world and what it hides for you. Just like the waters of a river have a tumultuous course, but they always go in the same direction, it is the same with the lives of these people. They have a clear goal and a clear direction. “The waters” of life may try to tumble them from one shore to the other, but at the end they are always moving forward…
When you have a defined goal, a purpose, it doesn’t matter if there is gonna be obstacles on the way. They won’t be something unusual for you. They won’t muddy the steady waters of life. They will just fuse with everything else that is happening and you will just pass through them… just like the waters of a river drift away everything that’s being thrown inside.
“The way you spend your days is the way you spend your life!” Isn’t that the reason most people’s life goes by in a similar way… just the actors are different! They put up day after day with an existence, which is characterized with a constant fight with life and the only goal of survival. And life doesn’t have another chance, but to answer their plead… and make them fight and survive.
But there are people, who do not fight with anything. They just accept everything and keep on moving… down the course of the river, towards their goal.
“Lakes” are people who love staying in their comfort zone. Those that always refuse the opportunities they have, by making up stupid excuses. Isn’t it strange? Most people aren’t happy where they are. But they still feel comfortable being there. Just because they feel secure. They might not like it, but at least it is secure. They are already used to that comfort zone and even if beyond its boundaries, there is something better waiting, they are incline to miss it, just because they don’t wanna take the challenge!
The more you accept the challenges of life, the more you will broaden the boundaries of your comfort zone. And one day you will realize that by accepting what is happening, by standing face to face with it, you’ve reached far. And that today the “surface” of your comfort zone is so huge that nothing could stop you. Nothing could shake you or make you feel scared and insecure!
Do not put up with gravitating in the small surface of your comfort zone. Dare to challenge yourself and soon you will feel like people- “rivers”… Those whose tumultuous and different life, takes up everything, drifts it away and keeps on moving forward to the goal!
P.S. If you liked this post, please take a minute and share it with your friends! I’d greatly appreciate it!
