Living next to a river, in a city of rivers, makes me think of the other rivers I have met over the course of my life. I am a fortunate human in many ways and one of them is that I have been able to chase opportunities for adventure and travel. I was able to get grants and awards that allowed me to chase dreams that brought me to far flung places. Many of those places have had a river running through them.
I was born and raised on a peninsula, on an island and I was born under the sun sign of Cancer. I pay attention to water. I walk its parameters and take a dip if that is an option. I want to know the water. I also wonder if it is related to growing up to an estuary heavily polluted by toxic waste, the disgusting filth and stench of it, void of life.
Water is inseparable from life for us and all living beings, it sustains us, we cannot live without it. Our bodies are made up of water and we are known to be affected by the moon, which also moves the tides.
These are the rivers I have known, in the order I met them:
Sydney River, Mira River, North River, French River, Clyburn River (apparently downgraded to a brook now), Middle Aspy River, Grand Anse River, MacKenzie River, Cheticamp River, Margaree River, Shubenacadie River, Fall River, LaHave River (Pijinuiskaq), Avon River, St, Croix River, Cornwallis River, Hillsborough River, St. John River (Wolastaq), St. Lawrence River, Rio Grande, Rio San Carlos, Fraser River, Prairies River, Ottawa River, Rideau River, Thee Mississippi River, River Seine, Los Angeles River, Hudson River, East River, Sackville River, River Clyde, River Lagan, River Liffey, Rhine River, River Spree
I may have missed a few, but those are the ones I can think of. This exercise made me think about how mental mapping, kind of like the list above, becomes a bit of autobiography. By this I mean that it tells a story about, in this case, my life.
I want to think about this more.