WORDS_LIKE_WATER

Welcome to words_like_water, where I will be the first to admit that sometimes there are no words to describe this wild and beautiful life but I sure as heck am gonna try. Because, like, verbal traditions are important.

‘Water is Life’ is what I heard over and over at Standing Rock protest, where I was for just a couple days, was painfully unhelpful but saw and learned a lot. Water carries things- ideas, people, trash, animals, oxygen, negative ions, sticks and things. It can also carry stories, the way the riverbank cuts into the land over time and changes the land and everything in it, change happening in tandem. Water can be gentle, hydrating, soothing, like a glass of water or a warm shower. It can also be brutal, waterfalls and ocean waves crashing down to pound on rock until it submits. In some shamanic traditions, the first initial rite of passage into shamanism can consist of going to a waterfal to a life-threatening experience in nature which brings the hopeful volunteer closer to the spirit world while also allowing them to prove their bravery and ability to push past preconceived limits.

Words vary in a similiar way to water. They can be a call to action, a loving note from family, a to-do list, a summary of events, a history, an inner reflection, a tribute, a prayer, an attack, a profile, to name a few. I would argue they can be the pen or the sword. Here in this blog, I am trying to use words to push and pull my own inner experience to grapple with questions that matter to me, mainly in spirituality. Media has been a platform that has allowed me to do that, as well as poetry. I hope that some of my questions and musings can prove useful to you, my community.

Disclaimer: Not everything I say here will be right, but hopefully it will be entertaining. Please fact check me, hopefully it won’t be necessary but I’m always learning. I hope to put some poetry up here as well, unless stated all photos are taken by yours truly.