Water in All Its Forms

Water is nature's most beautiful creation. Not only does it a necessity for life, but it is also nature's most abundant medium of expression. From waterfalls to glaciers, the fluidity of water, rigidity of ice, and the malleability of snow, all make water into nature's most abundant art form. Why go into a museum, when one can appreciate art in its purest form?

Ever since I was a kid, water always fascinated me. Whenever we went to a beach, I'd always use the sand to build a "river" of sorts, pour water into it at the very beginning, and watch the water run down its length until it disappeared. I would build "dams" across my rivers and create reservoirs of water, and then break the dams and watch the water rush down the river. I'd repeat this over and over again, for hours at a time. It was simply mesmerizing, and remains so to me even now.

When the Asian tsunami hit in 06, I lost count of the number of tsunami videos that I watched.
When typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan last year, the flooding fascinated me...it was the juxtaposition of water in an urban setting that did it for me.
When I walk in the rain, I slow down my steps and enjoy the feel of rain. The softness of it, the rhythmic beats of it hitting my coat, the sidewalk. The splashing of cars through puddles. It all melts together.

With the snow, it's a different type of enjoyment. I love feeling the physical contact of snow under my feet when I walk. When I came from Vancouver here to the American Midwest, I saw dry snow for the first time in my life, as opposed to the wet, sticky snow that falls in Vancouver. When the wind blows here, the snow rises off the ground and swirls around with the wind. I love just standing outside in the snow, and watching as the wind directs the snow into spontaneous explosions of movement. Swirling like a tornado, sweeping off roofs and forming a sail, even just looking at the snow blowing past me.

One time during the break, when I went to CRCE to run (6 miles), on my way back I noticed that the wind and the weirdly-placed barriers by Newman Hall had created a weird snow structure. It looked like a marble sculpture, so I stopped to examine it, and took a picture of it. As I passed by the parking lot, I saw the snow drift that was slowly creeping from the lot onto the sidewalk, and it reminded me of the constantly shifting sand dunes of the Sahara desert. With campus deserted in the middle of winter, I imagined myself to be in the Sahara. I don't really know how long I stood there watching the snow rise and fall from the parking lot, but by the time I left my approaching footsteps had disappeared.

Whenever I tell people any of this, they look at me like I'm nuts. I, in turn, look at them with sadness...because I feel like they're missing out on so much. And they don't even know what they're missing out on. Life is so full of tiny annoying details, that to counterbalance it, we should appreciate the things we take for granted everyday. A cloudless sky, thick fog, sunset, a squirrel stuffing its cheeks with food, snow on the ground, or when it's so cold your breath fogs up the air. So the next time you're walking around campus, if you see an Asian looking entranced at the sky, or at the gutter, or at the ground, feel free to stop and look entranced with me, or better yet, appreciate life a little bit more.

-FCDH