Between the Lines

The love of water is ancient and deeply wired into us. It’s emotional, biological, even philosophical.

We are water

Our bodies are about 60% water, our brains even more. We began life floating in amniotic fluid. We’re drawn to it because, quite literally, we are it.

Humans evolved around water sources. Rivers, lakes, and coasts meant life: food, safety, travel. Our visual system is even tuned to find reflective surfaces. So water doesn’t just relax us—it promises abundance.
Being near, in, or under water gives us what researchers call a “blue mind”—a state of meditative awareness. When we watch waves or a stream flowing, our brains quiet down with reduced prefrontal cortex activity. Cortisol drops, stress melts away, and we feel awe and safety, a primal sense of nourishment.

Rhythm and Sound

And then there’s the music—The rhythm of a stream, the breath of waves. Not quite a pattern, not quite chaos—more like jazz, flowing and free. Just enough complexity to awaken me. Just enough softness to soothe.

Psychological Metaphor

Water teaches me about movement. About release.
It carries things away. It reshapes what it touches.

And it reflects—like art, like thought, like time. When I watch it, I feel less stuck. More willing to believe that my own mind might move too—might bend, change course, and find its way again.

Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to it, not just with my eyes, but with my soul. Water doesn’t pretend. It moves. It reflects. It never stops being what it is.
And neither should I.

We don’t just need water to live.

We need it to remember who we are.