Water

I've always loved water. I grew up in southern California, near the beach, and I loved to watch the waves come in and retreat, ebbing and flowing. I like to watch the sunlight reflect off the ripples, forming dancing patterns on the surface. I like how moving water feels on my skin when I wash my hands or dip my toes in a stream.

In a conversation recently with one of my sisters in which we were talking about personality types, I told her that I felt that I was like water. Since then, I've been thinking more about this topic.

Imagine a river flowing downhill.

Water won't flow up a hill; if it needs to get to the other side of the hill, the river will go around it. It will avoid confrontation and conflict as much as possible. Where there are boulders in its path, the river changes course temporarily to go around them before resuming its course. Smaller things, like stones or debris may get picked up and carried for a while if the underlying current is strong enough. Things of a compatible nature may be dissolved or absorbed, while other things will settle to the bottom and be left behind. Water will take what it wants and leave behind the rest as it continues on its way.

Some days, the flow of the river may be peaceful and calm. Other days it may be choppy, with waves. There may even be an occasional flood, but always the river is seeking level ground. While it enjoys the ups and downs and adventures of life, it is ultimately seeking a mythical place where everything is smooth and peaceful.

Everywhere the water touches, it brings life. It feels joy in nurturing both plants and animals along its banks. Yet at the same time, it may appear to be unsympathetic and unfeeling as it rushes by. If the water was compelled to stop in one place, it would soon stagnate, and become cloudy and dirty. It would loose its vitality and it might even dry up and disappear. And so it continues on its way, exploring, changing, nourishing.

Frequently the river gets stuck in a comfortable rut, always following the same path. It takes great energy to break free of its banks and try something new, to explore a new path, although it knows that it may well be rewarding.

Sometimes the river feels divided. It has multiple paths it wants to explore, but realizes that if it pursues all the courses it wants, it will be thinned down, and won't have the energy it would have if it focused on just one path.

There is more to water than what is visible from the surface. There are currents and rip tides. There can be great, hidden depths.

Water is influenced and inspired by air. It sometimes looks at the freedom, and the heights that air achieves and is awed, but deep down, it is more comfortable in its bed, down to earth, doing things in its own way.

When water is confined by rock, it can feel restricted and repressed, and while it will flow around it however it can, it can't help but try to erode the rock, to polish it, to smooth out the rough edges that offend.

Water doesn't understand fire. It is stunned and often overwhelmed by fire's tremendous energy, and, often unintentionally, tends to have a dampening effect on that energy.

What do you think? What element (water/earth/air/fire) do you most relate to, and why?