I look out of my office window and see a white bird flying across the water body. I was amazed at the strength of the bird to keep flying over such a long stretch of water body, but then birds do fly long distances, don’t they? What really surprised me is that the bird landed on water, and not on land, at the far corner of the water channel. Why would it fly that long to land not on land but on water, while there was no mate in sight? Well, I had to get back to my work, so didn’t think more about it.
Until I happened to look again after a few minutes and saw the swan (and not a sea gull as I had thought) floating gently back in my direction and cleaning herself under her wings and long neck at the end of the day. And that’s when I realised what had happened.
The wind was blowing in my direction and the swan had landed on the other side of the water body to take advantage of the wind and float effortlessly, being pushed by the wind, while concentrating on what she had to do. She was just going with the flow! How smart!
Only if we learned to go with the flow in our lives, so much of it would be enjoyable, fulfilling and enriching. Of course, sometimes we need to go against the trend (to be true to ourselves and uphold our values and principles) and deal with conflicts (when they can lead to better results), but resisting anything that we don’t like is going against the flow and causing ourselves more pain and unhappiness. Going with the flow means accepting life for what it is, combination of good and bad times, things that are in our favour and things that are against us, accepting it all in a calm, non-partisan way, and making the most of the wind on our back. Like the meditative swan on the waters.