Being Like Water – Embracing Life As It Is

Life doesn’t always go according to plan.

Scratch that, life rarely goes exactly according to plan.

One moment we think we have everything figured out, and the next… plans change, people change, we change. There’s traffic on the day we’re already running late. A job opportunity disappears. A relationship shifts. A dream feels like it’s slipping away.

And if you’re like many of us, your first instinct might be to hold on tighter. To try to control, fix, or force something into place. But often, that only leads to more stress, more frustration, more resistance.

So what if, instead, we practiced being like water?

Water doesn’t resist the shape of the riverbank, it flows. It adapts. It softens what’s hard over time. It finds new ways forward, even when the path seems blocked. And when needed, it can rise with power and presence.

Life isn’t always smooth. And it’s not meant to be.

We all have moments where life throws something at us that we weren’t prepared for. Sudden changes. Disappointment. Loss.

For me, one of those moments came recently when two of our cats passed away, one of them was my son’s favorite. It was heartbreaking. Watching his sadness, feeling my own… it was so hard to process.

But in that pain, what helped me most was something I carry deep inside me: the belief that everything happens for a reason.

I don’t say that lightly. I don’t mean it in a way that dismisses grief or avoids feeling what’s real. I mean it in the sense that, even when I don’t understand why something happened, even when it feels unfair or unclear, I trust that there’s a greater flow at work.

I may never know the “why.” And that’s okay.

This belief doesn’t take the pain away, but it does help me hold it with more softness, more openness. It helps me surrender to what is, even when it’s not what I wanted.

Letting go of control doesn’t mean giving up.

It doesn’t mean we stop caring or stop trying.

It means we shift our energy from forcing… to flowing.

It means we learn to meet life where it’s at, not where we wish it was.

And in doing that, we create space- for healing, for unexpected beauty, for inner peace.

If you’re in a season of change, or things feel uncertain or messy right now, maybe this is your invitation to pause. To breathe. To let go of needing all the answers.

You don’t have to know why everything is happening in order to trust that something meaningful is unfolding.

You are doing better than you think.

So today, can you give yourself permission to soften?

To trust the timing of your life?

To flow with it, not fight it?

Like water.