I’ve begun writing my first book, which will be part of this Life Like Water perspective. This first book will be relatively short, under 100 pages. I’ll continue posting new blog entries as I write the book, so keep coming back or checking in on Twitter (http://twitter.com/LifeLikeWater).
Life Like Bottled Water
During the summer, temperatures reach well over 100 degrees with totally dry air. This sweltering time of year causes my body to constantly yearn for a cold bottle of mountain spring water. Explaining the flavor of water can prove to be quite a challenge. Yet, this cool and wet, all natural liquid can invigorate the soul as it rushes down my throat. So refreshing!
BRB (be right back), that sounds so good right now… ahhhh… mmmm. That hit the spot.
Life like water somehow seems to evaporate rather quickly to desert status while going through a traumatic experience, like the loss of a loved one or even a divorce after years of marriage. It’s like we have this innate survival instinct to abandon all connections with the world. To just sit alone with only our emotions for company.
I’ve been there and still occasionally visit this emotional pit. Going through separation and divorce after nearly 15 years of marriage has been a particularly painful and emotional experience for me. I spent most of my time at home. I felt that my world imploded and exploded all around me at the same time. An emotional fallout that has lasted for over 2 years.
Tears of Loss
When faced with the loss of someone or something special, we are overwhelmed with extreme sadness. As a natural outlet, we break down into tears as we mourn over our loss. Yes, even the strongest of men can go through these moments.
To cry out these tears, is very healthy and therapeutic while we grieve over the loss and recover from it. To survive and move forward with our lives. Never forgetting, but rather growing from the experience.
With every tear drop, life memories fall from our head. The best of times, the worst of times, and even the possibilities of life after the loss. Life is present in every tear. In our mourning, we honor the relationship that once was.
Disrupted Serenity
There you are, kayaking down a beautiful river on a cool refreshing morning. Holding the oars out of the water, you gently coast with the natural flow of the river. As you listen to the peaceful sounds of nature and take in as much of it’s beauty along the river banks, you can’t help but wish every day was like this. No concrete. No traffic. No noise. No stress.
You close your eyes for a few seconds to focus on the smell, sounds, and the feeling of the wind caressing your cheeks. Your moment in serenity is violently disrupted as the kayak hits a rock, and another, and another. Until you find yourself in the middle of raging rapids.
Life like water offers you many peaceful moments of serenity. Unfortunately, it can also catch you off guard, forcing you into a fight for survival. You can’t control life any better than the river. Fortunately, you are in control of your responses and reactions to the events that hit you. You usually have two choices when going through the rapids:
When you read or hear the word, Environment, what emotion does it stir inside? Is it fear of how it’s eroding away or something milder that more invokes concern rather than fear? Or, perhaps you feel the longing to escape the concrete jungle of man-made metal and glass trees?
For the past several decades, we’ve been inundated with environmental messages that are designed to invoke fear and concern for the damage that man has caused. These shock messages come with the hope that we’ll be better informed of the issues and perhaps help in ending the abuse. Has it worked? Well, it’s given Al Gore the opportunity to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
I believe that there are more positive and constructive ways in helping the environment. The current shock and awe messages have little effect with a society focused on selfish ambition with virtually no care for the future. The poverty class are lost and drunk with their dependency upon government handouts, the middle class are barely surviving, while the upper class are endlessly seeking satisfaction. Basically, people have stopped caring about anything beyond themselves.
Humanity has effectively divorced itself from mother nature. This will have grave consequences as a result. Unfortunately, one of the only ways to turn this around, is for humanity to re-connect with the environment. We need to stop thinking from the perspective of what we can do for the environment and focus more on realizing what the environment can do for us.
Life Flows Like a River
Life flows like a river, with its tight relationship with time, in that it’s swiftly moving even when we’re not. There are tree branches whisked away with the current, clusters of rocky rapids failing to hold it back, colorful rainbows decorating waterfalls, and Jack Frost’s yearly struggle to freeze its flow.
Rivers offer us a wild adventure, while refreshing us inside and out. We are captivated by their majestic waterfalls and calmed by their flowing sounds. We are saddened when they dry up and threatened when they flash flood.
Yes, like life, rivers are amazing natural wonders. Yet, it’s not really about the river that matters, as it’s more about how we respond while in it. Here are some example responses:
Since writing the article 9 Primary Emotions We Respond To, I’ve been pondering what emotions Adam and Eve experienced before they were kicked out of the garden? It’s sometimes difficult to fully understand something without knowing the opposite as well.
For example, how well do you know happiness without also knowing sadness? Having first hand experience of both emotions allows me to better understand which one I’m experiencing in the moment. Some refer to this as the Yin-Yang philosophy.
Surviving the Waterfall
I recently took a trip to Yosemite with my son and we hiked up to the top of Vernal Fall. On our way up, we took a break at the base of the waterfall. It was purely majestic in nature that energized us for the steep climb to the top. It was a beautiful site and safe to see from the misted rocks off to the side.
At the top, there were guard rails secured into the rock that allowed us to walk right up to the edge and look over and down to where we were sitting earlier. Even though I had about 80% trust in the guard rails, I couldn’t help from feeling the fear as I looked over the edge.
How many times have you come close to the edge of a life changing event, and walked away because of the overwhelming fear of the unknown between where you are now and what you envision in the future? How many times have you faced the fear and risked the waterfall plunge because you knew that your future was worth the risk? Of course, there are also times that we are in the river and have little choice as life pushes us over the edge and we fall down that waterfall, skipping the fear and landing devastated.
Emotional Crowbar
Earlier, I outlined the 9 Primary Emotions We Respond To, which many people have no problems with. Yet, there are many others that are very skilled at suppressing their emotions and have locked them away in a closet. I know my closet was dead-bolted earlier this year.
I was like a boulder thinking that I was moving forward. Instead, life was flowing all around me like a river moving in the opposite direction, where I was fighting an up-stream battle. As a boulder, I preferred to be in a cluster with other boulders as long as we didn’t touch.
Oh, how I wish someone came along earlier in my life with an emotional crowbar, to pry open the door to my closet. The emotional crowbar is fairly simple but it has a very steep requirement. Before you can effectively use one (yeah, yeah, I’ll get to what it is in a minute), you’ll need to gain a solid trust with the person. It may be a bit tougher if that person is yourself. I’ll save that discussion for another article.
That’s right, there are over 6100 bloggers that have signed up to help make an impact on a single topic come October 15th. The topic will be on the environment and I’m sure it’ll be some awesome reading as bloggers will be writing about the environment from their blog’s perspective.
I have signed up Life Like Water and will begin writing an article to post that day. It will most likely be from the perspective on how our lives are impacted by the environment around us, not just water. It’ll be somewhat a flip from what I think will be the more common perspective about our impact on the environment. So check back here on October 15th to read about it.
