Be Water

We’ve had back to back days of rain. Today, when the sun started to appear in the early afternoon, I grabbed my things and dashed out so that I could get a walk in before it got too hot. In my quest to explore as many of Atlanta's trails and parks as possible, I figured today was a good day to try the park that's five minutes away from me. It's a much smaller park than I'm used to. One lap around the built-in path took me about 6 minutes.

I walked around and then down the street and then back to the park path and around again. As I walked the opposite direction, scribbled on one of the few structures in the park were the words, “Be water.”

I read them and immediately felt really good. My body relaxed. I was lighter, fluid, and free from resistance. I googled the phrase and learned that it’s part of a quote attributed to Bruce Lee:

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

And it turns out that the trailer for ESPN’s Be Water, a documentary about Bruce’s Lee’s life, was released today! That can’t be a coincidence. Just another example of life lining up.

Anyway, be water, my friend.