I spent the greater part of my first three years out back in our above ground pool swimming from sun up to well past sun down. I was pretty sure I was a mermaid, misplaced here on earth. Clerical error or something. There are days when I still question that.

I’ve always felt most at home in the water. Born under a Pisces sun with a Pisces moon and a whole bunch of other watery planets, that probably makes sense. Water is the main symbol in my dreams and rarely a night goes by when water doesn’t make at least one appearance in some form.

Having finished up a project I’d been working on fairly intensely, I decided to treat myself to a swim after my Cyntergy class today and indulge my water jones. Sun Oaks has recently built a new outdoor pool and I’ve been eyeing it with eager anticipation. The water sparkles crystal clear in the sun. The lane lines were in today. It was not quite ready (tomorrow, they say!), so I took a dip in the covered pool. Water is water.

As I was breast stroking down the lane, I thought about why I love the water so much. As my head came up for breath, I saw the forest landscape and heard the birds that fly through the open sides of the pool roof. As my head dipped down into the water, silence. The black tiled path down the middle of the pool directed my eyes to the black cross tiled at the end of the pool. The blue water, the silence, the simple design. As I bobbed between these perspectives, it dawned on me that it’s the perspective shift I love.

Take snorkeling. When we find warm, tropical-fish filled bays–like my favorite Kealakekua Bay in Hawaii–and explore, I’m am wholly in my element. I just want to stay there, dive down, and live in sea caves. The beauty overtakes me. The fish, the corral, the way the light shines through the water, the silky feel on my skin. Pure bliss.

But water, like all life, has its shadow.  A most devastating blow to my life as an underwater explorer came when I discovered I couldn’t SCUBA because of the scar tissue in my ears from repeated ear infections as a kid (ironically, probably due to the fact I never came out of the water.) During my SCUBA class I actually got stuck in the bottom of the pool and had to be lifted out very slowly over a period of an hour so my head wouldn’t explode and mess up the pool. I seriously almost ran out of air in my tank. What a stupid way to die that would be for an x-mermaid. Water and I had always gotten along, but not that time. Then there are tsunamis and floods. Who can forget about the whole Noah story. I’ve even heard that if you drink too much water, it can kill you…which seems odd to me considering I consume enough water to irrigate a Corning olive orchard.

Still, without water we die. It is the source of all life. It cleanses and purifies. It’s essential to our well-being in so many ways. It’s used in spiritual rituals (holy water, baptisms). It’s celebrated in bathing rituals in 7 different forms in Korean Spas. (Sigh. I miss the Korean spas.) Without it, our crops die and we have no food. We depend on it.

I don’t know if this blog has a point. I’m leaning towards no. If there is one lingering, it’s this. We all have themes that thread through our individual lives. It’s usually where our joy lives. Perhaps it’s trees. Or birds. Or water. When you find it, you find your happy place. Enjoy it there.