Where in the World is Candace Hatchett?

From the Airplane Window

I flew from Illinois to California a few days ago and had no idea that I would get to see the Grand Canyon from above! I've never had a chance to see the Grand Canyon in person but was delighted to have a peek at a beautiful and expansive part of nature. I have since been in California training with my team. I am learning Arabic, social customs, traditions, and reviewing Teaching English As a Foreign Language (TEFL).

I was challenged today in a cross cultural training session to be like water as I face the stresses of adjusting to life overseas. Water has many beneficial qualities. Water is transparent, flows easily, can bend, fill space or adjust to what it is contained in, and can uphold enormous amounts of weight. The speaker in the session stated that the Grand Canyon was carved out by the force of water. I immediately thought about the view out of the window of the airplane. The deep grooves in the rocks throughout the canyon were so easy to see from miles above, and hopefully some day I will see the canyon from the ground level, but to think that water had such an impact or impression upon solid rock is beyond my understanding. How can something so soft change the properties of something so hard? I am sure there is a geological explanation dealing with erosion and pressure over time, yet I am having difficulty fathoming how the Grand Canyon was formed. (Now I'll have to google the Grand Canyon tonight to find out, right?!) I am not sure how this challenge to become like water will manifest itself in my experience in N. Africa, but I really think that this speech will resonate with me during my time away as well as in life.
This challenge to be like water also makes me recall a passage from Jeremiah 17:7&8 that says, "But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and puts his confidence in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

I guess I have always pictured myself as the tree in this passage, but I wonder what would happen if I thought of my self as the stream instead. Which qualities of water will I exhibit most over the next year while living in another culture?