When you think “motivation,” what kind
of images come to your mind?

Do you think of fire?
Passion, desire?
A burning hot drive
to accomplish, to strive?

Or do you think of water, of flow?
The rain that can coax plants to grow?
The river that turns the mill wheel,
With its own soft and slow kind of zeal?
Do you see the sustainable rain?
Do you think of the wax and the wane?
The unstoppable waves of the sea
That smooth mountains into debris?

Fire, impressive and bright
Radiates much heat and light.
But if you go far down that route,
You can’t help but burn yourself out.
For fire needs fuel to burn,
And if you’re not nourished in turn,
The next thing your fire will do
Is turn around to consume you.

The way to sustain and deliver
Is to be not the flame but the river.
The way to accomplish with peace
Is not to control, but release.
The way to thine own self be true
Is to water the garden of you.
The way to all of the above
Is to move not from fear, but toward love.

Inspired by Passion is water, not fire