Yesterday morning, I woke up to a deep fog. It rose up from the river like a breath in the cold and coiled around the trees, snaking through the forest like wisps of smoke. I skipped breakfast, grabbed a clementine and went outside with my camera.
The snow that had fallen in a passion the day before was melting. It was as though water was on walkabout. I could see its vapour wandering across the partly iced river, flowing across meadows and thickets in hoary wisps, and rising up to meet the ghostly sun.
Water is a shapeshifter and each day is a gift.
Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. 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 bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.
The Meaning of Water 