Change From Inside

But, for all that, they had a very pleasant walk. The trees were bare of leaves, and the river was bare of water-lilies; but the sky was not bare of its beautiful blue, and the water reflected it, and a delicious wind ran with the stream, touching the surface crisply. ~Charles Dickens

Wealth, the beauty of youth and flowers are guests for only a few days. Like the water-lily, they wither and fade and finally die. ~Sri Guru Granth Sahib

I think that the best kind of change, is the change that comes from the inside and begins it's way until it emerges on the outside; a change that is born underneath then continues and spreads until it has reached the surface. That's true change. A powerful change. And I have found that while we are emerging, changing into something glorious; it is actually us becoming who we really are... 

A water lily is born underneath the water,

 inside the soil at the bottom of the river or lake. 

And the water lily has always been a water lily for that whole time that it was sprouting out of the wet soil, reaching up through the dark water toward the sunlight, stretching and grasping for the surface; where it then buds and blooms on the outside in the sunshine. It doesn't bud and bloom on the surface and then try to reach down below into the soil. ~C. JoyBell C.