246: Saturated

Last one to the swim platform is a rotten egg

This week’s Weekly Photo Challenge is:  Water.  It is not much of a challenge for me.  In fact, it is so easy that I was tempted to complicate it.  Because that’s how my mind works at times.  Take something simple, add a dash of this and a pinch of that, and the next thing you know, I have a huge project on my hands.

Water iris with raindrops

Because of all the rain — stubborn, persistent rain that refuses to go away — when I stepped outside today I felt immersed in water.  If ever there was a time to get to know the element of water, this is it.  Every step produces a wet, sloshing sound as my feet sink into what has become a giant puddle.  There is no dry ground.  Anywhere.  Even the air feels wet, mushy, and boggy.  Water drips, drips, drips, off of everything.  Sometimes the rain comes from the trees rather than from the sky.

Today's view of the pond

I know water well, but I looked around the internet to see what others had to say about it.  I found that the element of water is associated with the West, the color blue, emotions, intuition, clarity, and healing.  It is used for cleansing, healing, and purifying.  In Feng Shui, pooling water brings stabilization to surrounding energies, and moving water helps us to let go of energy that is no longer useful to us, taking it out with the flow.  Some of these things I knew, and some are new.

Cattail and tree reflections

But what about mud?  We have an abundance of mud here in the Bogs these days.  I came back from my walk with my legs covered with mud and blood (the mosquitoes swarmed and apparently my legs were a prime feeding spot), my shoes, socks, and feet soaked and mud colored.  Since mud is getting to know me, I decided I should get to know it.

The new stream

Mud is the union of earth and water.  This combination reflects transition and transformation.

Mud is the substance of birth.  It is the medium for the emergence of matter.  This landscape reflects that there is a new stimulation occurring in some area of your life…

Mud can also be a reminder to recharge and strengthen our connection to primal earth…

On the other hand, excessive amounts of mud, or animals stuck in mud can warn of the same thing.  Are you bogged down in a particular area of your life?  Are your emotions bogging you down?  Are you stuck in old emotions and unwilling to grow and move on?

~ Ted Andrews, Animal Speak

The creek spreading out and exploring the woods

Years ago when I decided in tongue-in-cheek style to refer to where I live as The Bogs, I had no idea it might all become a true bog.  Perhaps it won’t.  The water, having taught us something, will retreat and go back to its usual hangouts (lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, creeks, and the area bogs).  There was a time when I would say/write, “I’m sure that’s what will happen.”  Mama Nature has been up to something lately, though.  She might have made up her mind to institute some serious changes.  We’ll have to wait and see.

Dry land plants adapting to their new home in the water

Whatever happens, it will be interesting.

Raining on the tiger lily plant

I have left almost to the last the magic of water, an element which owing to its changefulness of form and mood and colour and to the vast range of its effects is ever the principal source of landscape beauty, and has like music a mysterious influence over the mind.

~Sir George Sidwell, On the Making of Gardens

The beginnings of a swamp in the woods

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