Fire & Water

My dad started out a preacher and ended up an astrologer. There's one thing you can say for him--he stayed focused on the heavens!

He was a scorpio, and though I really know nothing at all about such things, astrology.com just informed me that this is a very intense sign. Duh. Also that each sign has an element associated with it, and scorpio is a water sign. Fascinating, since Dad seemed so full of fire.

But water was his only medication. As I've said, he loved to swim. He also washed dishes--it was the one chore around the house he could be counted on to do, though you really couldn't count on the dishes coming out all that clean. He loved the river when he came to the mountains, and would also lie in the tub for hours. I always wondered why he didn't completely shrivel up. And when he left us, no longer able to hold it together, he moved to the beach. There, he could swim with the dolphins, sleep under a catamaran, and listen to the waves--calmly, steadily coming in, going out, coming in, going out. It must have reassured his racing mind, calmed his frenetic spirit. It was the earth saying the same thing Dad used to say to me, in his lyrical southern voice: "everything's gonna be alright."

When I've had a crazy week and all the details are getting to me, my one-and-only will say, "you need to go walk by a creek." And he's right. The continuous bubbles and splashes, over and under, they calm the nerves, lift the spirit, quench the flames of frustration. I may be a gemini and I may not be crazy, but I've got a touch of my daddy's fire in me, and I do love the water.