I love the line below that says “It is said that the fish which can swallow a boat does not swim in side streams, the high-flying hawk and swan do not settle in ponds and puddles. Why? Simply because their aims are extremely high. This entry should be required reading for everyone and read multiple or many times.
What is there to do once you have seen yourself beyond the horizon? It’s like traveling above the clouds with your new friends knowing destinations yet to be seen far exceed where you have been or what you have seen before. 
There’s a famous line that Martin Luther King Jr., said to the effect that “I’ve been to the mountain top, and I’ve seen the other side” in a speech just prior to his death.
Of not stopping as he traveled through the history of this speech and saying that it was in the darkness that we could best see the stars. For myself, it is this speech that he should be best remembered.
For me, it is like he knew what was coming. Events were beyond his control in spite of his best efforts. MLK was a great inspiration prior to his death and to many more afterwards. He was a minister who preached non-violence in the center of the storm of the 1960’s watching inequity that had torn apart the inner cities of America at the height of the Vietnam War with the anti-war demonstrations front and center at the time. Then he was killed shortly after the speech knowing his days on earth were numbered. Questioning what was to be his legacy he was to leave behind… and asking how he could have done more and if he had done enough.
There’s a sense of clarity about our role when we’ve experienced that mountain-top moment ourselves. It’s like finding our place and purpose before the final curtain drops and getting ready for the next chapter that’s sure to follow. Understanding it doesn’t matter whether it’s today, tomorrow, this month, or years down the line. You’re fortunate to have made it this far and are now prepared to reconnect with old friends eagerly awaiting your presence again. Life is full of highs and lows, often without explanation, designed to challenge how we tackle obstacles, endure hardships, and step forward into brighter days… beyond the mountain peak and toward the next horizon for ourselves.
Discovering who we are and why we are here often means embracing the journey into the unknown without fear or hesitation. Teaching at a university in China was an incredible experience. 
Most of my students were young women from small villages in the countryside, for whom attending university was their first real exposure to a larger world. I had the privilege of being their foreign English teacher.
My class was their glimpse into the world, and learning English was supposed to be their way out. They were both determined and anxious, knowing that failure meant returning to a life in the countryside—a life where their parents lived, surrounded by the fields their ancestors had worked for generations. They longed for the universe to light a path forward. They had seen what else was possible and yearned to take a different path. They were both determined and single minded.
My travels with Lieh Tzu / Interpolations along the Way
Chapter Seven – Yang Chu
117. Becoming Single-minded
Setting oneself apart for great enterprises requires tremendous diligence and patience. How can one remain concerned with trifles? 
Looking to achieve success in your endeavors you must see beyond what is small and keep from being distracted from your true destiny.
How can one be impressed with what remains ordinary? Coming back into the realm of others, what can be discovered in small talk and activities not in line with extending the knowledge and experience one finds while traveling with Lieh Tzu.
Yang Chu once told the King of Liang that ruling the empire was like rolling it in the palm of your hand. The king angrily responded:
“You have one wife and one concubine whom you cannot control, and a garden of three acres which you cannot weed. How can you judge how I should rule the Empire?”
Yang Chu continued with a story illustrating his point:
“Have you seen a shepherd with his flock? Send a boy four feet high with a stick on his shoulder to follow a hundred sheep, and they will go east and west as he wishes. Make Yao to lead one sheep, with Shun following behind with a stick on his shoulder, and they couldn’t make the sheep budge. Is it not the real question of knowing where you want to have some sense as to where your destination will take you?”
The King responded:
“It is said that the fish which can swallow a boat does not swim in side streams, the high-flying hawk and swan do not settle in ponds and puddles. Why? Simply because their aims are extremely high. The same as with Huang Chung and Ta Lu music that cannot accompany the dance in common entertainments. Why? Because their sounds are too far above the ordinary.”
Once you have seen the horizon traveling with Lieh Tzu and the others how can you desire to look back, be concerned with trifles or consumed by small successes. Once your eyes are opened, how can they become closed? Once you have seen glimpses of your destiny, how can you become anything but single‑minded? 7/21/95
Number one hundred seventeen of one hundred fifty-eight entries.
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