Photo credit to Jared Barnes.
The Water Reality
I always loved the ocean. Growing up on the south coast of England, the ocean was a 10 minute drive. Often it was too cold to go in the water, but you could sit on the beach, and listen to the wisdom of the waves as they pounded relentlessly onto the shore.
Wave after wave, hour after hour, year after year. Teaching us lessons, if only we would listen.
I took me a long time, but I think I’m finally learning.
And I started with the simple lessons, like how water can assume any shape you give it. From this I discovered that life was best lived to the fullness of all I could be. The water does not complain about the size of the container, it just fills as much of it as it can. I also realized that water was water, no matter the shape or the volume or the orientation.
Water is water, like humans are human.
When I learned about the states of water, it helped me realize that we are often in different states of being, yet they are still all part of the whole. The ice that becomes water that becomes steam is the steam that can become water and turn to ice. So it is with the times of lives, passing between sorrow and calm and joy and back again.
The transitions are a part of the journey, and are necessary to the experience of the whole.
I learned that water can obscure my vision as rain, yet the very same water can clean a window, or a lens, to allow me to see clearly. So the water is never the problem, only the way that I see it. That taught me to look for the good in every situation, and helped me understand that there is never a meaning to an experience until I assign it.
And as I can use the water for my benefit, so I can use the experience for good if I choose to.
For water is neither good, nor evil, yet it is essential to life.
From water does all life flow – be it in the trillions of cells that make up our bodies, or the rain that grows the plants and trees that are so very necessary to allow our continued existence on this ocean floating in the stars. Without it we suffer, without it we starve, without it we die.
How curious that our most precious molecule is one of the most abundant.
But the water had one more lesson to teach me, but this took me a long time to understand. In its components parts of hydrogen and oxygen, they will cause fire to burn hotter and faster, to the consumption and destruction of all around it.
Yet bound together, water reduces and removes the flames, instead bringing the gift of coolness and calm.
Is there a better way to show us the need to work together, as families, as partners, as nations and as a world? Only bound together can we overcome the destructiveness of our human nature, and find growth and gratitude for the blessings of life that we have been given.
Alone we are powerless against the storms of life, but together we can withstand all that would stand against us.
Such is the reality of water, such is the reality of our lives.
I feel I must return to the ocean again soon. There are more lessons to learn, and I have been gone too long from my teacher.
(I'm so happy to share today's picture with you, for it was taken by my son. Early in the morning, he saw the beauty of the morning dew, and shared a small portion of his incredible talent with all of us.)
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings