Boat will naturally straighten near the pier

船到桥头自然直

My moth­er in law often used this chi­nese proverb which trans­lates to when the boat gets to the pier-head, it will nat­u­ral­ly straight­en. She often used this phrase if we were dis­cussing a sticky sit­u­a­tion that didn’t have an easy and straight for­ward solution.

I remem­ber this phrase when she recount­ed a tur­bu­lent time when dad had his first stroke and both kids were about to be in col­lege. I asked how she man­aged the weight and respon­si­bil­i­ty of her husband’s care, the house­hold, and the 2 col­lege kids. She said it was not easy but she sim­ply did what was need­ed and believed in the proverb!