WATER - "WASSER"

 

I just finished reading the “Dirty Snowballs and Space Rocks” chapter in Dan Levitt’s Book “What’s Gotten Into You”.  It’s all about where the water on earth came from.  It’s fascinating and brain busting to go through the process of discoveries that scientists have made over the years, decades and centuries.  I am amazed at the persistence that people have to uncover the story of this cosmic space traveller we call Earth.  Most of us are content to go to work, eat, sleep and play a bit, but there are those who really want to know where the oceans came from.  

The word “water” in German is “Wasser”.  It is the word I use when I see a body of water that I wish I could play in.  I was two months old when I went on my first canoe trip with my family.  Water has never been something I’ve been scared of, because I was introduced to it at such a young age.  I remember one of our trips with the sailboat on our family Florida trip in 1985.  Dad brought the boat out on the ocean.  I climbed over the side and decided to swim in the ocean for a bit while the family just stayed in the boat.  For me, that was the farthest out in the ocean I had been.  It wasn’t until after I climbed back in the boat, and maybe back to land, that I thought of what other critters could be sharing the same space with me in that very ocean.. sharks and stingrays came to mind.  However in that moment, I just wanted to be surrounded by the ocean water and it felt better than staying in the boat.  

I adore rivers.  They are the picture of life for me.  A river is never the same.  It is a constant movement.  It is water on a journey.  When I lived on the Colpitts Dairy Ranch by Calgary, the Elbow river was a favourite place to go swimming.  I remember often going in and letting the water carry me, if only for a few metres.  It was mesmerizing to just abandon myself to the flow.  

Water time for me now mostly consists of early morning or evening dips in our hot tub on the deck.  I often find myself staying warm as I stargaze and spend time with my far away friends.  It’s not the same as swimming in the ocean or in a river, but it is sufficient to give me my connection to the elements that I’m told were around 13.8 billion years ago.  Scientists tell me that Hydrogen is traced back to the Big Bang.  I like that narrative.  I like that part of me and those things that are part of my world have spanned the course of time and existence.  It makes me feel connected to life itself. I feel less lonely in this world.  Maybe that is what embracing a narrative is all about.  Maybe we all want to feel less lonely.  I can’t find fault with that reasoning.