018 Carry, Don't Sip
Hey River, you carry this water a thousand miles and never once take a sip of it.
What are we carrying that we keep dipping into?
What are you carrying for others that you keep dipping into?
A great river flows through dry plains. It carries water from the mountains to the sea, past villages, fields and cities.
All that water, and the river keeps none of it for itself.
What really happens
A river is simply water on its way somewhere. Everything it carries is passed on: to the fields beside it, to the people along its banks, and in the end to the sea.
This is a teaching image: the river's whole life is carrying, not keeping.
How we know: A teaching image drawn from how rivers work, not a scientific claim.
The turn
Many of us carry what belongs to others: a team's trust, a family's money, a friend's secret, a client's time.
It is tempting to take a little sip along the way.
Three takeaways
- Some things are given to us only to carry.
- Trust is kept by what we do not take.
- Integrity is a river that reaches the sea full.
Carry it all the way. Don't sip.
Though nought but profit come of it, touch not the wealth that cometh by deviating from the right.