MINDFULNESS| LIFE EXPERIENCE| REFLECTION

Clarity in Stillness

The lesson in boiling water

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No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see- Taoist Proverb [Image: ©️Pal_Sanghita]

They say you cannot see your own reflection in boiling water. I have been told this innumerable times while growing up.

It was not until this morning that I understood it truly as I stood over a steaming vessel, as I was preparing tea.

The water bubbled furiously, steam rising, shrouding my bespectacled sight of the vessel. My glasses got smudged with water vapor.

My thoughts spun like the water bubbling and the steam fiercely competing in an endless rat race.

I bent over, about to add tea leaves to the pot, when I saw my distorted, broken reflection.

I must have been in this moment countless times before, but it might not have ever gotten to my mind.

I put the tea leaves in, and after a while, they danced and twirled, changing color. I watched them settle down once the boiling water cooled down like my thoughts finding a place to rest.

I bent again instinctively. What did I see?

I saw my reflection — calm, unbroken.

It instantly hit me — clarity is not something you force when you have chaotic thoughts. It comes naturally when you allow stillness.

In quietude.

I sipped my tea and smiled. How something so simple took me decades to understand and internalize!

Do you have the patience to wait
Till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
Till the right action arises by itself?- Lao Tzu

Gratitude Nancy Blackman, MASF for considering my morning muse in your beautiful publication, Refresh the Soul.🙏💖💐

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