Water

I was told once that my horoscope lacks the element water. Water is the element for emotions if I understood it right. That I lack the element water doesn’t necessarily mean that I lack emotion. In the contrary, I can basically make up in being overly emotional for that lack. At least that was part of the analyzes I got back then. Or better: A very short version of it and only a tiny snippets of everything that I found out about myself by reading my birth horoscope and getting everything explained to me in a fantastic follow up conversation.

Maybe this lack of the element water in my horoscope drives me towards water. I don’t know. What I do know is that I feel extremely comfortable around water. All kind of water but mostly the ocean. I could spend hours on the beach or close to a river or lake. Listening to the waves or the flowing river, to the sound of a waterfall or even the rain calms me down, fills me up with energy and simply makes me happy. I wrote a lot about it in the past and would like to share some snippets with you from those posts.

Water fascinates be. Every kind of water. Waterfalls, lakes, creeks, rivers and of course the ocean. I always feel like it transports a story, it tells about life, about what it encounters on it’s way around this planet. I feel drawn to it and if I could, I would spend all the time in or around water.

You know the feeling when you put your feet in the water on a beach and the waves pull the sand from under your feet? How it can through you off balance? Although the ground gets literally pulled from under your feet this feeling makes me feel grounded. Feeling the sand move under my feet, the water around my feet gives me such a good feeling. It makes me believe that I am connected. And when I then move further into the water until I’m swimming, until I can feel the water on my skin everywhere, it just makes me happy.

I admit, I do worry what might be out there with me. But then on the other side I feel so calm that I forget about it again right away. I am aware that I maneuvered myself basically into the food bowl of some predators by my decision to swim in the ocean. It’s a risk I take though. A risk that I try to limit in now swimming in the favorite food types of that said predator and maybe not around typical meal times. But there are so many other beautiful creatures out there besides sharks. Living in an environment that is so magical, so mystical. All of them living in this perfect symbiosis, only interrupted by us. I wonder what they would tell each other, the stories they have to share. I wonder what they think of us and what we might not have discovered yet and hopefully will never truly make ours. Sometimes I wish I could spend more time in the water, I wish I could dive freely among those beautiful creatures, almost become one of them. Sometimes I wish I could understand what they are telling each other. Unfortunately this will never be possible. This world is just not meant for us to be in. Unless you are a free diver you will never get even close to experiencing this as snorkel and scuba gear just simply don’t let you get even close to being a fish.

“A few weeks ago I met a free diver. I guess most of you know what a free diver is. For those of you who don’t: Those are the divers diving with no air (tank). And by diving I mean diving for a VERY long time! The current record stands between 9 and 11 minutes, depending on the category! 9 minutes under water without breathing! Without having to go back to the surface… just spending time down there… bliss! Have you ever seen the movie ‘Le Grand Bleu (The Big Blue)’? I loved this movie…

So anyway… I think being a free diver is the most amazing thing. You are down there, swimming amongst all the wonderful creatures of the ocean in a way they would do… Yes, eventually you have to submerge but until then, you are one of them. You hear them. You hear the whales, the dolphins. You swim with them. You are part of it. You are part of this amazing world. How very beautiful.”

When I sit on the beach and I let my mind wonder I often imagine how it would be down there, how I would feel like. I mean I can kind of imagine how it feels from diving for a little bit. But how would it feel like if you could just stay under and swim. Join the whales on their journey from one corner of this earth to another. Or the turtles, the stingrays. Even the sharks. Be one of them for a little while, just to experience it.

“I often ‘disappear’ into this world. In moments I need to find myself, moments I take to relax or when I meditate. I close my eyes and in my mind I dive into the ocean, into this amazing world and I stay. I stay for as long as I can. I travel the ocean in my thoughts. I swim with the whales, with the sharks, the dolphins, even with jellies. I float on the surface, ride the waves. Feel like they first pull me in an then push me forward. It’s where I find peace.”  – Emerging In Water by A Momma’s View

Now think about the story water could tell. The story of it’s journey from deep inside this planet to the ocean. What a single drop might see, might go through, might experience, might have to tell. The many different phases it goes through until it finally forms into a huge ocean. I tried. I might not be close, but thinking about it put a smile on my face.

From my post Stories Told By Water, which was inspired by Lucile‘s post about water:

Next time, when you sit on a beach and watch the waves as they roll in, listen to their sound as they breach on the beach or rocks. Next time you walk along a river listen to the story its water has to tell. The river that runs by, with its currents, torrents, streams and little pools, the waves, the foam that build on top of them. Next time you go fishing at a lake, listen to the story the water wants you to know. The lake sitting there nice and peacefully. The little pond or the little creek. The ripple, the splashing, the bubbling, burbling, pattering.

It tells you a story. Imagine the sheer incredible journey a little raindrop makes… This little raindrop falling from the sky, making its way through soil or across mountains or rocks to a little puddle, into a little stream, maybe into a creek, maybe in a waterfall to end up in a river.

Now in this river it will be traveling through different valleys, pass different towns or cities. Encountering numerous animals and humans on its way, to maybe have a little break of the journey in a lake. Then on it goes, again passing numerous towns, cities, floating under bridges, boats on the surface, providing people and animals with fluids, through different countries until it finally reaches the ocean.

There our little raindrop will mingle with its kind and the inhabitants of this magic place until one day it evaporates and makes its way back to the sky. Only to form a cloud and eventually fall back down to earth as a raindrop again. And it all starts over. Maybe in a slightly different way… A new adventure…

How could water not tell a story? Imagine you would be that little raindrop and go on a journey like this… Imagine what you would encounter, what you would see, maybe hear.

And next time you sit by a source of water, somewhere out there in nature: Imagine what story you would tell someone if you would be that little raindrop.  This little raindrop, that just stopped in front of you to take a little break and hang out with someone, who will never actually be able to grasp what it is like to be a little raindrop…