21 Day Pure Water Journey: day 1

May this 21 Day Pure Water journey bring me closer to these beloved waters and all her brilliant creatures and lifeforms. May I remember her pristine origins and may I remember my own in the process. I am ready to care for our waters and consider her in all my actions moving forwards. 

Anastasia references water many times in the book series as a source of vital strength. It was her beloved taiga lake that revived her life energy after being attacked by the high priests. In book three, Anastasia says, “Water  will prove to be the criterion, the measure of all things. Everyday that passes, water seethes with more and more contamination. And the air becomes more difficult to breathe…..’ page 224. 

The ocean is teeming with life. Everyday I see dozens of birds, sea lions, otters and occasionally a whale with a baby swimming by her side. She (the ocean) covers about 70% of the earth’s surface, and we (humanity) are also made of approximately 70% water. The love and care we give to our waters is going to reflect in all life everywhere, especially our own. 

This is how the first day of my 21 day cold water journey began…
I was standing on the ocean shore with my towel wrapped around me, staring at the lapping water in total fear and resistance. A few minutes later, I threw my head back and laughed. It was only a day ago I was sitting by these very shores sending pure love and devotion to these waters, and now here I am the next day sending grief. My body seized up and my mind raced at the thought of being so cold. I thought to myself, is it the cold that I’m so afraid of? I can have the most incredible, reviving, purifying, awakening experience with the ocean right now, and I’m scared of her ‘temperature’? Again I laughed out loud and dropped my towel. I began remembering how much I love her. I love the music she creates with her waves, the crystal clear quality of her, the refreshing air she offers, the majestic and hypnotic movement of each wave and ripple. I know she is ancient and embodies memory and therapy that are divine and purely medicinal. She is pure joy and poetry in motion.

I began walking in the waters using my breath as my guide. If I resisted the cold, my body would seize up. If I breathed, relaxed and received her, I experienced a surge of supportive, permeating energy. This energy is intense and sensational, as well as deeply pacifying and soothing. Can I show the ocean that I trust her? Do I trust myself? I could not fully relax and trust our cold waters, not yet, and that’s totally ok. I immersed my head under and heard a pod of sea lions in the distance bellowing. Resurfacing, suddenly I was not so cold or tense anymore. It actually felt much better to be fully immersed than only partially. The strain of ‘immersing’ myself was gone and so was a lot of the resistance. I could actually feel the water, and she felt amazing. 

Once I fumbled out of the water and stood on the shore, I experienced the most pleasant, cooling wave of energy through every fiber and bone. I felt supremely ALIVE, totally awake, and connected to absolutely everything around me. All of my senses were heightened and any filament of inflammation or pain in my body was totally gone. This incredible state latest for hours, and I could not help but feel pure love and reverence for the ocean. 

What a treasure we receive from nature when we demonstrate this degree of trust. We have been conditioned to fear nature and our precious waters. What if we no longer feared her? What if we cared for her as we do with our own family? 

What if what Anastasia said was right, “Water will prove to be the criterion, the measure of all things.”