I went for a swim in this mountain pool over the weekend. It was as magical as it looks.
It had me thinking about all the times nature, and Water, in particular, has given me a hand along the way. All the times Water has shown up in my lesbian love life to heal my deep wounds. And to celebrate big wins. And to set me up to envision, imagine, dream beyond where I am in the moment.
The time I opened a “goodbye – it is over” letter from my first girlfriend at a swimming hole in a mountain river in southern Vermont. And for the next three months soaked my soul and cried my eyes out in this particular water for the entire summer. My heart ached from the painful reality that she could not go on as she feared for her life if we continued.
The times I frequented mountain streams with a former girlfriend & fly fished and mushroom foraged, the Hemlock trees above and chanterelle mushrooms below, playfully exploring and celebrating wild edibles we would gather and cook back home after a plunge in the little water cave on the side of Mt. Mansfield in northern Vermont. How that river energized us to be a part of a lesbian & gay community that came together to make civil unions legal in Vermont.
The times I spent soaking in hot fever baths with a former partner in Peru and had this natural clinic as a safe refuge from her homophobic family to relax our nervous systems. Supported by locals & natural medicine doctors who watched over us in the baths and gave us freshly pressed sugar cane juice to sip as we healed our physical & emotional pains.
The times I would waterfall hunt in solitude in the Andean hillsides of Colombia trying to come up with strategies to handle a difficult and toxic dynamic with a former partner. How each of those hikes and soaks in the waterfalls had me closer to moving myself into a better situation. How the running water guided me to therapists and attorneys who helped me get custody of my daughter and a travel permit to leave the country, finally.
The times I would take my bike to the beach in South Florida and jump in the ocean, every day, for six months straight, after arriving back home to the United States, like a refugee in my own homeland, beaten up and ptsding, after 7 years stuck in a foreign land, there I soaked in the salt water and kissing the sand, that I had come home, thanking my angels and ancestors for getting us back on land.
And to now, 3 years later, bathing in this tropical mountain river pool in the Panamanian hillside with my partner, grateful & blessed, as we dream and envision the future together, grounded in a soft and secure love, carved out by our commitment to something bigger than our egos, in this cold plunge, still healing deep wounds, while at the same time energizing and igniting inspirations for a shared journey of a joyous and harmonious life ahead.
Water is here for us. Remember all it has done for you today. Tap into the places you want it to take you. Ponder this as you connect with Water, anywhere, anytime.
And just like this river that pours out of this mountain unaware somebody would come along with a vision to create a little pool out of her, where you could soak, you are like that. Be the little pool where others can soak in your energetic field. Be the person who can see the river cutting through the rough and rocky edges of the planet we’re on and build a beautiful pool where you can sit, bath and contemplate the magnificence of this life.