I write this as it seems to be continuously raining at my house. Pacific Northwest Rainy Season. I just got back from walking my kids to school and I am soaked through. My hood and umbrella were both employed, but it was just too much water for them to repel.
Water. It is everywhere in many forms. Children can talk about the many phases of water, including water vapor and ice. Ocean levels are rising due to climate change. Water is powerful as part of ocean waves, sometimes knocking the bikini tops off unsuspecting ladies enjoying the beach. Water. We need to drink it to survive.
Water is life. Cities – civilizations – have been built around it. Consider Egypt forming around the Nile River.
Wars have been started over rights to water – the United Nations recognizes water disputes between countries and other entities within countries, public or private. There is even a Water Conflict Chronology developed by the Pacific Institute that lists violence over water going back nearly 6000 years. Water means something. It elicits life and conflict.
Drinking water lead me to think about the age-old idiom: Is the glass half full or half empty? You’ve heard it, right? The correct answer has always been, its half full because that is the positive way of looking at it. Those people who answer that it is half full have a positive outlook on life. Those who answer that it is half empty have a negative outlook on life.
But what about this:
The glass isn’t half full or half empty. There’s water in it. This was a concept that I’ve probably been introduced to many times in the past few years, but I didn’t actually HEAR it until I watched a talk by Tommy Rivers Puzey (Tommy Rivs, as he calls himself, had a long couple of years, after being diagnosed with a rare cancer during the covid pandemic. His story is here: Cancer Nearly Took Tommy Rivers Puzey's Life. But the NYC Marathon Awaited. - The New York Times (nytimes.com); or TommyRivs Running Apparel: Shorts, Jackets & Tights | Craft USA (craftsports.us)
This idea of the glass HAVING water was something that required me to shift perspective. But what does it mean? It means that we should observe that there is water. It exists now in this moment. Nothing else. I think looking at it that way makes us stop and just be in the moment, with no judgements. Its something we as an American society do not do enough. We are always rushing, stressed out to get to the next thing as quickly as possible. We do not – if I may use another age-old idiom – stop and smell the roses. We don’t appreciate moments and just exist. We are not still and focus on using all of our senses in our environment.
If you wanted to, perhaps you could also go one step further to realize gratitude for the water in that glass, as it is an important element for survival and health. I, myself, am not quite to that perspective but I am working on it every day.
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