Memoirs of a Geisha

by Arthur Golden

We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course.

Deep

dreams can be such dangerous things: they smolder on like a fire does, and sometimes consume us completely.

Water never waits. It changes shape and flows around things, and finds the secret paths no one else has thought about—the tiny hole through the roof or the bottom of a box. There’s no doubt it’s the most versatile of the five elements. It can wash away earth; it can put out fire; it can wear a piece of metal down and sweep it away. Even wood, which is its natural complement, can’t survive without being nurtured by water.

Sometimes we get through adversity only by imagining what the world might be like if our dreams should ever come true.”

But now I know that our world is no more permanent than a wave rising on the ocean. Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper.