The Essays

Dear Water...

To the Oceans, Rivers, and Puddles of the earth,

You have always held my heart. The rain that beats the earth, the water that spills from party cups, the 98% that fills our bodies All has passed by my eyes in wonder. The pools that we fill with you, the waterways and the canals we divert you with, and finally the oceans that you always return to, they all draw me like a fascinated child, someone who cant hold the amount of joy they receive when they get to be with more of you.

As the water in my cup, you have become an everyday occurrence. A trivial action that keeps me alive and moving throughout the day, but Im sure you knew that already. You know how important you are to me even in those times, running through my veins the way you do. You pump my heart, refresh my skin, and keep my eyes open to the stars in the sky.

I always want more of you though. When you rain from the sky, I smile and know its going to be a day that I wont feel lonely, because you are here. I hear you, pat pat patting on my doorframe, greeting me as I work in my room, reminding me that the words that I write have meaning and value, weight and influence. You wrap around the house like a comfortable blanket, sealing me in from the woes of the outside. On some days, your raindrops call me out, and I stare at you, pooling in my hand, thinking about how far youve traveled from the sky. My hair dampens, my clothes stick, and you drench my upturned, grinning face. You slip through the cracks in my fingers and run across my feet, into the drains and ditches that humans have carved out for you. I run about, watching you drive indoors all the frowning, disgruntled souls. Those who grumble and moan about getting wet from the water, the very thing that they are made of. Slowly the streets become empty, slowly the road is clear and only me and you are left, walking alone in our content.

Still, being immersed in you is so much better. When you are raining, you are like a solemn, quiet creature who walks with those who dare to join the storm. I become so introspective and filled with wonder at how you can change the earth in a second. However, when you are joined together, so much of you in one place at once, you become jovial and joyous, jumping around like a six-year old toddler who has found a grasshopper. Sometimes I wonder if you are bothered by being contained in pools and ponds and lakes. Such stagnation must be trying for your rampant nature. But then I plunge, and you show me how much you adore me. I have never understood those who dont trust the water. You must be respected yes, but you also are not some being to be feared. It seems like everyone assumes you are collected in a mass for the sole purpose of drowning and death. Ive never seen you that way. You are a friend, sent to cool me and caress me, carry and lift me into a new place. A place that takes away my gravity.

Has no one felt your depths? The way I do? Does no one dive only a few feet under the surface and wish they would never have to return to the world that is filled with the grumbling, moaning airbreathers? I never want to leave you and have spent most of my life trying to go deeper and deeper, experiencing your fuller, enrapturing self. Flippers and goggles are a trifle to me, because I cant imagine how people can live constantly setting up more barriers to you. They never take off their armor, their safety nets that ensure you wont be unpredictable with them. All the innertubes and floaties and caution tape are meant to be for the airbreathers. Leave them behind! I live for your unpredictability, your surprises, your turmoil. I want my natural person to experience your natural aura. To breathe you. To live you.

You are at your best in the ocean. Nothing compares to you there. I believe its because this is your true home, where you always end up and where you always leave from. All your other forms- creeks, puddles, rivers- are on a journey, eventually ending up here, your home. You are whole here, your strength mirrored in your vastness. You are wild here, reckless in your play. Just like you, I constantly long for your shore. I stiffen my longing for your true form by enjoying your rain and pools and rivers, but I always return back to the ocean, just like you.

This is a love letter to you because I dont think anyone ever has written one for you, the most deserving of all the elements. We have enjoyed each other for as long as I can remember, from the first times I played in a sprinkler to the last time I felt pulled by the currents of a river, I know youre there. You smile to me, wanting my attention no matter what form you come in.

This is a love letter to the rivers and puddles and oceans of the earth, all of your counterparts that have sustained me in my years, adoring me as one of the chosen ones. I know there are others out there who love you as much as I do. Those who have a deep respect for your power and influence on their lives. If they are reading this, they have experienced this power for themselves and are drawn to it every day. You know us so well, dont you? You have raised us from children. You were the tears that streamed down our faces and the cold showers that woke us up in the mornings, and the tea that helped us sleep at night. We are the few, the few that say I love the water and mean it. We love you, as deep as any romantic partners do to each other, as any mother to her child, as any best friend does to the other.

Return to your depths, knowing you are adored.