Gutta Cavat Lapidem

Do you know what "Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi, sed sæpe cadendo" means?
Well, it's a Latin proverb that translates into English as "Dripping water hollows out stone, not by force, but through constant dripping"

Isn't that interesting? Not only a true fact on a pure mechanical level, but is how the world woks actually.
The simplest way to see this is by thinking about how in the old days a blacksmith used to work the metal, to shape it he used to blow strikes onto the metal until this took the shape that was required, and he kept doing that until his vision materialized on the physical object.

Did I get your attention? What does it mean? OK, I'll give you a personal example now.
A while back I was in college and as a young teenager and adult I was not the best in school, I was good at some disciplines, while really bad at others. At some point I went to college to study something I was very interested in, didn't know much about, and which required skills that I was the absolute worst at. For me it was a challenge from the very beginning, had a hard time just making sense of the terminology involved, but after the first semester it started to get really difficult, people in my class were quitting on a continuous basis, and that was not encouraging for me at all. I was having difficulties as much as anyone else, if not more, and that was scary. In the second year thru college it became a nightmare, the amount of information that was required to be crammed into our brains was astonishing, and even people who looked like smart cookies to me started to disappear one by one.

One day I was talking with my best friend in college, right after the class, and we were both terrified, how fast people were dropping out and how difficult everything has become. I remember very well when I said "There is no way I can screw this, I don't know how, but I have to finish". What I meant is that I must complete the course and get the diploma, no excuses. I also remember his response back "If we can do this, we can do anything" and we statrted laughing, it was a hard day at school, we needed to lighten up a bit.

Long story short I did finish, and so did my friend. We both finished, in a class of about 15 people after the final exams, and we started in a class of over 140 students. I do not mean to be boastful, because from all those people that finished, trust me, I was the least knowledgeable one, not doubt. What got me thru was my determination that I must complete the course and get that diploma, same as my friend.

Think about it, I'm sure there are things in your own life that happened simply because of sheer determination, against all odds. When you put your mind to something, and are set to get certain result, if you pound on it long enough, it must happen. But that is the most difficult task, keep pounding even in the darkest hours with everlasting relentlessness. See it as no other way to push but forward, and things will start to line up.

Sometimes I need to be reminded of that, there are times when we need to look inside for self-inspiration and the energy to continue even if it doesn't make much sense to do so, perhaps in the process I can help somebody else as well.

06 August 2017
Marius C.