Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children
Wade in the water
And God’s gonna trouble the water
Years ago an astrologer looked at my birth chart and remarked “wow, you’re all water!” With watery sun, moon and rising signs apparently I’m flooded, astrologically. No wonder that the most challenging times I face often are best expressed in watery terms. No wonder I find the greatest solace sitting on a rock by the lake just watching the water move.
I woke up this morning and began writing about recent challenges, just allowing the words to spill out pen to page, in the hope that it might release some of the pressure on my heart and soul, pressure that’s recently left me exhausted and quiet, constantly searching for a place to just be. And, as is so often the case, what poured out of on the page was a revelation to me, an answer staring back from the pages of my notebook. My question going in had been how can we be fully present for another while still guarding our spirits so as not to absorb all of the pain we are helping to assuage? How can we help to keep another afloat without going under ourselves? And on top of that, how do we deal with these quiet, reflective times, giving ourselves over to the space to consider these questions in a world where there is so much focus on action? The answer lay on the page before me:
“Instead I walk. I walk to the water and watch it move and reflect, filling every little crevice it touches. I stop and listen to the wind in the trees. I ask the Divine to help me see all of the ways its presence is present in my life, for that sense of wonder and awe that usually fills and feeds me to not so much return but to remind me that it’s there. In challenging times, the walls I erect to protect myself also can hide the beauty that bursts in the world around me. Ever an optimist, I trust that things will turn but I can’t quite figure out how to make it happen. And maybe that’s the thing? There is no “making it happen”. Maybe there’s only the waiting and wading until the water gets shallower and I can once again appreciate it lapping around my feet rather than taking me under.”