
Tide pools in sandstone Botanical Beach, BC (photo by Nina Munteanu)
Today is World Water Day. All around the world, people are celebrating water–without which we would simply not exist. We celebrate this day (and all days) that water has blessed us with its life-giving properties so freely given.
What is Water?…
Magic surges with power and mystery. Magic hides in clear view; it ripples with intrigue. When you look at magic, you see only your reflection; while its depths veil immeasurable possibility. Magic is water.
Life is sacred and flows with holy expression. Energetic, invigorating, and bracing, life fertilizes all Being to become more than Itself. Life is water.

Wilket Falls, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)
Motion is the demon and angel of change. Motion flows endlessly on a tangent with time, destroying and creating. Motion carves sinuous patterns of stable chaos. In its turbulent wake or gliding caress, motion heralds transcendence. Motion is water.
Communication is the dance of singularity in a sea of Unity. It is the river of connection, uniting and expressing the fractal whole. Communication collides in a waterfall of notion and surprise. Informing. Transforming. Evolving. Communication floods the iconic dam, surging through conformity toward its own imaginings. Communication is water.
Memory streams in a braided and recursive path, meandering Ouroboros-like toward itself. Memory stirs up sediments that have lain for eons; re-suspending, re-examining, as if new. Then cascading toward the abyss of truth and paradox. The collective. The great ocean of thought. Memory is water.
Rhythm undulates—at once turbulent and calm—signaling its fractal presence. Rhythm scours and builds its music with infinite patience and precision. Spiralling. Oscillating in successive rushes, glides, surges and trickles. Self-organizing. Coherent. Viscous. Rhythm is water.
Vibration hides and reveals its entangled energy. Vibration drifts on the tidal tapestry of the soul. Resonating in synchronous tones as it courses down gravity waves, vibration writes its unique sound and story. Vibration is water.

Eramosa River, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)
Beauty reflects Nature’s flowing embrace. Deep and quiet, beauty captures divine radiance—refracting, magnifying, rejoicing—and bursts into a sparkling sea of serenity. Light personified. Beauty is water.
Story meanders through varied landscape; cutting jagged rock and stirring fertile soils to release their messages; then joining in the great sea of the plenum. Story springs from the depths, bubbling forth with fresh bracing news of a new land. Story is water.

Water ripples on the Credit River, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)
Prayer ripples out in circular waves of coherence from its source and back. Gestalt self-actualization. Prayer is a rainbow, revealing the reflected soul. Prayer scours, cleanses, refreshes and renews in a cycle of creation and connection. Prayer is water.

Water drop on host leaf (photo by Nina Munteanu)
Wisdom does not stand still. Wisdom flows. It doesn’t flow in a straight line. Wisdom winds. Wisdom is wily. It transforms and transcends matter and energy with a subtle and patient hand. It erodes and deposits, from idea to emotion to philosophy. Wisdom tolerates. It forgives. It embraces and encompasses and—in changing—stays the same. Wisdom is water.
Ultimately, water will travel through the Universe and transform worlds; it will transcend time and space to share and teach; water will do its job to energize you and give you life, then quietly take its leave; it will move mountains particle by particle with a subtle hand; it will paint the world with beauty, then return to its fold and rejoice.
I am water. I am joy.

Stream in BC rainforest (photo by Nina Munteanu)
This poem was created using excerpts from “Water Is…The Meaning of Water” (Pixl Press, 2016) by Nina Munteanu.
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Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of award-nominated speculative novels, short stories and non-fiction. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s recent book is the bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” (Mincione Edizioni, Rome). Her latest “Water Is…” is currently an Amazon Bestseller and NY Times ‘year in reading’ choice of Margaret Atwood.