Crossing the Flood, Neither Standing Nor Straining
Neither halting nor straining, just so I crossed the flood.
Crossing life's flood, do I lose my way between the two extremes of halting and thrashing?
📝Reflection
Someone asks: how did you cross the flood? The teacher's answer is just two phrases — I did not halt, and I did not thrash. At first it seemed too short to satisfy. But in that brevity lay deep wisdom. A person caught in a flood has two ways to fail. One is to freeze in terror and sink on the spot. The other is to thrash so violently that, exhausted, they sink. Halting is death, and thrashing is death. The way to survive lies between: not halting, yet calm; advancing, yet not overstraining. I feel this fits every crisis of life. When hardship strikes, we either freeze (halting) or panic into frantic effort (thrashing). But the wisdom to cross the flood lies in setting both down — a steady step that neither halts nor thrashes. That goes the farthest.
🌱Apply It Today
When a great difficulty makes you freeze or strain frantically today, pause for one breath and decide only "the next single step that neither halts nor thrashes." A steady step goes the farthest.
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
