2024 intention: be like water (in all its forms)
23 Jan 2024as i am wrapping up my annual reflection retreat, i wanted to write up my 2024 intention. well, at this point it’s still a draft but i think it’s pretty close to where it’ll land.
my 2024 intention: be like water (in all its forms).
how did i get there?
it was initially based on two new relational touch points with water i had in fall 2023. i did my first 3 lap swims for exercise in nov and mid-december 2023. the first two swims were at a hotel i was staying at for a gig where i wanted to use the gym but left my running at home and decided to lap swim for the exercise instead. the third swim was with my friend, mikaela, in LA (and it was an EPIC swim: outdoors, sunrise timing, cold af outside, the lanes were long-ways on an olympic pool, so many other people).
the second new touch point with water was going SURFING for the first time, also in mid-dec, also in LA.
i love connecting with water and for my whole life have found it important an important and attractive force. whenever i go to a new geography, one of the first things i do is figure out where the nearest water is (and i try to go take a look if it’s relatively easily accessible on the land). i have very little water in my natal chart and have often found myself gravitating towards water signs. for example, the highest concentration of zodiac signs i have in my chart are in pisces (between my exes, current partners, friends, mentors, and nibblings, there are 10+ pisces 🤯♓️).
and then as i started writing this post i realized two other new water touch points: in 2023 i did my first round of cold showers and in early 2024 i did my first ‘sauna-cold plunge’ circuit (shoutout to jaco and joe!).
ok all this is to say, the things pointing me towards water as my intention for the year are my own new experiences with it.
and then as i have sat with that for the last couple of weeks, what’s become clear is a largely untouched element of the popular mantra “be like water.” i realized while walking down to the river in the snow one day that when people say “be like water” they almost always mean “be like liquid water.” but water comes in other forms, too. what would it be like to explore being like ice? or like steam?
so here we are! be like water, in all its forms.
let’s see how it goes?
ps - some other forms for the phrase i am toying with:
- be like water, all of water
- be like water, all of it
- be like water; solid, gas, liquid
* note to self: write a blog post about this practice
words / writing / post-processing
433w / 20min / 11min