Beautiful piece. I thought Ursula LeGuin wrote stories and novels but reading this piece made me appreciate the depth in her perception. The connotation this portrays, of water taking the 'low road' makes me think of water being non-resistant, and being at a 'low energy' state. Offering resistance causes the body and mind to be in a 'high energy' state, where we are actively seeking ways to oppose the situation. Offering no resistance allows us to accept the situation for what it is, and seek another path. But water cannot be compressed, meaning that core values cannot be compromised in choosing an alternative path. By being both passive and yielding in action but being incompressible in core values, we can be like water, resilient and pliable, but achieving our final objectives. To me the way that helps me 'flow' is to deliberately pause and accept the situation in its entirety, watching the heat that arises in my body in opposition to a situation dissipate and simply look for alternatives. By nature, this is difficult for me to do, but much more internally unreactive (relaxing) when I see the change in the reaction within my own heart.
On Apr 6, 2017 LM wrote :
Beautiful piece. I thought Ursula LeGuin wrote stories and novels but reading this piece made me appreciate the depth in her perception. The connotation this portrays, of water taking the 'low road' makes me think of water being non-resistant, and being at a 'low energy' state. Offering resistance causes the body and mind to be in a 'high energy' state, where we are actively seeking ways to oppose the situation. Offering no resistance allows us to accept the situation for what it is, and seek another path. But water cannot be compressed, meaning that core values cannot be compromised in choosing an alternative path. By being both passive and yielding in action but being incompressible in core values, we can be like water, resilient and pliable, but achieving our final objectives. To me the way that helps me 'flow' is to deliberately pause and accept the situation in its entirety, watching the heat that arises in my body in opposition to a situation dissipate and simply look for alternatives. By nature, this is difficult for me to do, but much more internally unreactive (relaxing) when I see the change in the reaction within my own heart.