Go sit by the water

Not water you are cleaning, crossing, or hurrying past. Water you are simply watching, the way people have watched it for as long as there have been people.

There is some near you. A lake, a river, a pond, the sea, a fountain in the middle of town.

You pass it, maybe, on your way to the things that count as real. This weekend, the water itself is the destination.

Here is why it works, and it always works. Moving water asks nothing of you and holds your attention anyway, which is exactly the rest your busy mind cannot give itself.

You cannot organize a river. You cannot improve the tide or make the waves more efficient.

You can only sit and let it move. And in watching something you do not have to manage, something in you finally unclenches.

So this weekend, go to the water. Bring nothing you have to do.

No book to finish, no phone to check, no companion to tend to. Just you, a place to sit, and the moving water in front of you.

Stay as long as it feels good and leave when it does not. Fifteen minutes counts, and an hour is a small kind of luxury.

You will come home a little smoother than you left. That is what water has always done for tired people, and you qualify.

Find the nearest water, a lake, river, pond, or fountain, and go sit beside it. Bring nothing to do. Watch it move for as long as it feels good, and let that be the entire outing.

Today you have permission to sit by the water and accomplish absolutely nothing.

See you tomorrow.