I said, to my daughter,
‘My dear! Be like water!’
Shapeless, amorphous,
Fluid, formless, sinuous,
The epitome of a leader!

Prepare to alter your shape,
Poured into pitcher or carafe.
The world is your stage.
You can be a cottony cloud.
You can be the shower of rain,
That inundates all terrain.
Or a crystal lagoon,
Or a raging typhoon.
You can be a frozen lake,
Or an ancient glacier.
It’s all in your nature.
You can turn desert into pasture.
Shift, mould and transform,
For, that’s a winner’s charm.

‘Be like a river!’
Tranquil, gurgling, mellow!
Don’t pause or halt, just go.
Life teaches us to flow.
Run deep, run shallow.
Run wide, run narrow.
Go around the hurdles,
The stone and the boulder.
But when faced with rival flanks,
Let loose and flood their banks!
Your waves can caress and embrace.
Or they can crash and efface.
Under your gushing cascade,
Land can vanish without a trace.

Within you lies the power,
Over all else to tower!
For, champions often stoop to conquer.
You can cut through rocky stones.
You can crumble enemy bones.
You can be pure as driven snow.
You can wield the death blow.
You can climb, you can descend.
You can navigate hairpin bends.
You can carry silt and grime,
Deposit them on the sands of time.
Drizzle and the weather’s balmy,
Or you can choose to be the tsunami!
Free to sketch your destiny.

You can be salty, you can be sweet.
Cold and frigid or tepid in heat.
You can carve out ravines.
You can turn the turbines.
You can be calm, you can be chaotic,
Ordinary or exotic.
You can be a muddy puddle.
Or a clear, translucent bubble.
You can build, you can break.
The choice is yours to make.
Decisions yours to take.
Learn from your mistakes,
‘Coz there’s so much at stake.
It’s morning whenever you’re awake!