Water has supported me since my family and I first moved to Manhattan. I was around 10 when I first started coming to the river. Life was changing. I had many emotions and a lot of stress to process. The world around me was overwhelming in beckoning me to be someone I wasn’t ready to be. I did not have a strong sense of who I was nor who I wanted to be because, at that point, I was still figuring that out.

I would go to the river, sit on a bench and think, emote, meditate, process, and release. The incoming waves brought about a new way to think and be. The outgoing waves took with them what I could and would no longer hold. It was my cleansing ritual and left me feeling refreshed, new, and emboldened.

The overall direction of the water hasn’t changed. It has always flowed up or down depending on the tide, and water stills laps at the rocks on the shore. It is my focus that has changed. Now, I notice the waves heading north, and that represents forward motion to me. This is the same movement that I am exhibiting in life.

In my life, water is such a powerful, captivating, magical, and beautiful element. For me, it represents range, transition, cleansing, play, life, energy, and renewal. Water has supported me since we first moved to Manhattan, but actually, since the beginning of time.

M