“The true strength of the crocodile is the water.”
In other words, without water, the crocodile is weak. In other words, what strengthens the crocodile is something that is outside itself. What strengthens it is where it lives. Another way to interpret this is what gives it strength is that which hides it.
The crocodile is able to launch an effective attack and appear ferocious because of the element of surprise. The water seems to add another level of protection and tool to the animal. It is like an appendage that enhances its strengths and softens its weaknesses.
While writing and thinking about this, I am obviously thinking about what could be my water? What could be our water?
I think that more often than not what also strengthens us is what is outside us. Without what is outside us, we are weak. Perhaps, what strengthens us is where we live. By the same line of reasoning, we need to uproot ourselves from certain environments so we could find our water—environments that strengthen us.
Perhaps, the environments are these places where we could retreat, where we are not as visible to others, where we could work in the background without the pressure of living public lives constantly. So that when we do come out of our waters, we become the strong ferocious animals that we are.
Perhaps you could treat this room as that place—a place where you can be yourself, where you can be strong.
A question we could also ask ourselves is, how might we make this relationship a place of strength?