Time Passes By

The Time Passes By,

Snow on water, Trees on Sky. 

Forever the Same.

Red Cedar River, December 2013 and July 2014

I've always loved water. In fact, as a child, I learned how to swim underwater before I learned how to float because floating was just too scary. How could I trust my own lungs, my own body to keep me safe? I was much more comfortable trusting my life to the unpredictable and uncontrollable force that is water.

When I was twelve, I had my trust shaken. My brother and I were swimming on the river and the current caught me. The water held me on it's floor. I couldn't move despite how hard I tried to swim. I remember looking up and seeing the sun as if it was pulling away from the Earth and slowly fading into the distance. My brother's figure looming over me broke the moment. As everyone who has had this type of experience says, it happened so quickly but was burnt into my memory as eternity. I was back to swimming as soon as I caught my breath.

All of my life, I've never lived too far from water. In high school I lived a couple blocks away from Duncan Creek and everyone knew where to find me when I wasn't home. In college it's the same story just a different creek.

  

(left) Red Cedar: Menomonie, WI; (center) Mississippi River: WI; (right) Susquehanna River: PA

As mentioned in previous posts, it was a complete shock to me when I moved to Menomonie and couldn't be on the lake. Water had always been a part of my life. To me, water wasn't just something to use and then ignore; water symbolizes the times I've had with friends as family. Water has provided me with an outlet from which to better understand myself. Water has been the consistency I've craved in this world of uncertainty.

Duncan Creek: Chippewa Falls