Still waters run deep

“Still waters run deep” is my favorite phrase since I was 16. I spent the past 6 years honoring the first page of my journals with the words of this Latin proverb and wondering which part of my body I should tattoo it on.

Still waters run deep:

“a quiet or placid manner may conceal a more passionate nature.”
“used to say that someone who is quiet may have very strong feelings or a lot of knowledge”

I loved it because it was a better, stronger and more meaningful way to say “don’t judge a book by its cover,” because it’s about the lack of rocks in deep rivers that make them seem so calm, inviting, safe and shallow. It spoke to me and about me. A single phrase changed who I am, how I see people and how much harder I try.

People aren’t as they seem. I spent a good few years improving myself with still waters run deep. I destroyed the stereotypes I held. I abstained from labeling people until they did so themselves. It opened my eyes to a whole new world.

But, it wasn’t until recently that I realized I haven’t been using it to the fullest. I neglected sentences, words, body language, and emotion. I never read between the lines. I took what I saw for what I thought it is. I never tried to understand what words meant or the possibility that they could hold something bigger. I haven’t noticed until recently that I shouldn’t jump to conclusions when I read a sentence in a book or a phrase written on a bathroom wall.

I haven’t realized until recently that anger isn’t always anger just for anger. Anger is for a reason. It comes from a place that feeds it words and actions until it’s ready to manifest itself to the people. I haven’t realized until recently that when someone taps their feet it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re nervous. When someone avoids another it doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t like that person because maybe it’s the complete opposite. Maybe, that man is so profoundly in love her that he can’t talk to her or look at her. Maybe, it breaks his heart to see her smile because he knows she’s smiling for someone else. I haven’t realized until recently that someone who so easily jokes about mental disorders might actually suffer from one.

The possibilities are endless.

The more I see how ignorant I am to the little things in the world around the more I fall in love with “still waters run deep.” Still waters run deep and they will run forever deep. I am so madly in love with it, I’d empty all the shallow waters from their rocks to have them all be still.

Love, Alyazya