The abilities of water mimic many of our own. In its reflection, we can appreciate our own qualities as any body of water, through observation, will reveal them to us. In this issue, we are considering everything it means to be like water. How it flows, takes shape, is malleable, yet a force to be reckoned with, and how our own lives have the same abilities while unfolding over time. We hope this issue inspires you to spend time contemplating your relationship with water -

The warmth of the tropical ocean water and the waves hitting my shins brought me to a tranquil state I hadn’t felt for a while. As I walked the beach, the persistent feeling of loss I was carrying began to slowly shift. The salty ocean scent and the canopy of tropical rainforest above me loosened something I had been holding tight. Then, I stopped. Ahead of me stood a damaged retaining wall. This sturdy structure of cement blocks and wiring was ripped into pieces that the oce

In the fall of 1912, Daniel was born next to the rushing water of a river that has passed by his family farm since time itself can remember. The river is born in the dark hollers above the farm and holds tight to the edge of the family’s land in a narrow cove that hangs high above the flat, open valley below. Daniel entered the world during a mid-October snowfall and was bathed and warmed by water carried from the river and boiled over a puttering hearth fire stoked by hickor

There’s a special kind of magic that comes from dipping into the water at the edge of day, when the songs of the birds and the frogs and the crickets converge, when the colors of the sky reflect in the colors of the water, making one indistinguishable from the other. The last gasps of light enhance the texture of the sweet water and it morphs, just for those fleeting moments, into something quite its opposite: solid, permanent, timeless. It enhances my senses and never ceases

At Es Vedrà, the body quiets before the mind understands why. As I reached the edge of the cliff where the dirt trail ends, the rock rose from the sea with a kind of stillness that did not feel passive. It felt ancient, complete, and inevitable. Around it, everything was moving. The water changed color and shimmered with the mid-morning light, while heat gathered on my shoulders and a cool breeze moved over my skin with just enough push to take the edge off the sun. The taste

It’s a beautiful evening in Oregon. We sit on the upper deck of a restaurant overlooking a field of farmland, snow-capped mountains in the distance, a sunken sun blasting rays of orange across the sky. The day will end in a blaze of glory – surely, not an unusual sight. The sun is mostly glory, especially where we live in California – a place where the sun does not shy away from showing off. But to us, this sunset – this one sunset is the first we’ve paused to witness as a fa