My Love for Natural Bodies of Water

For some reason, I love natural bodies of water. I find them so relaxing and peaceful which is ironic because I can’t swim and don’t intend on learning how to swim. When I look or am around natural bodies of water, I notice I start to smile and daydream. The free movement of water causes me to envision jumping in and floating for a while. I don’t like swimming pools; the smell of Chlorine annoys me and they remind me of the Olympics and stress. I also never want to go sailing on a boat. Natural bodies of waters, like lakes, rivers, oceans, and waterfalls are my favorite form of nature. The air/wind is my second favorite. When I was younger, I remembered I used to love to go to aquariums for class field trips. I loved looking at the fishes and sea creatures. From my dorm room building, I was able to see a lake and I stared at it a lot nearly every day. I wanted to visit it, but I did not have time and it was still cold. (I plan to visit it when I go back).

My love for natural bodies of water is also connected to my mom. She loves them too. She is from Guyana. The country’s name means the lands of many waters and the country lives up to the name. It has Kaieteur Falls, which is the tallest waterfall in the world. (It is the picture for this post). There is also the seawall that my mom and her siblings and friends used to go to a lot for fun while they were growing up. When she was pregnant with me, she said that she used to have a lot of dreams involving waterfalls.

Water as a whole has a symbolic meaning and each body of water has their own meaning. For the most part water tends to be associated with new beginnings, renewal, new life, cleansing, source of life, transitions, etc. At the beginning of 2018, I had a lot of dreams with waterfalls. In one dream, I was injured and standing in an elevator. Out of nowhere a gush of water started falling down on me as if I was standing under a waterfall. I didn’t feel like I was choking or drowning, I felt at peace. After a few minutes I started feeling stronger and my injury was gone. At the ending of 2017, I was in a mood of letting go of a lot of negative things. I did not want to bring unnecessary baggage into 2018. I was also thinking about the future a lot and reflecting on my past. Before graduate school, I had dreams of rivers and lakes. I attributed the dreams to the big transition I was about to embark on, which was starting graduate school in a state where I did not know anyone at the time.

Time to Focus on You:

What is your favorite form of nature? How do you engage with it