100 Days of Blue


100 Days of Blue. To be in, near, on or under the water for 100 days consecutively between Memorial Day and Labor Day (ok, plus one extra day if you're truly counting). It's all in the spirit of Blue Mind, the growing science that behind how water not only positively impacts our lives but our minds as #waterismedicine.

We spent 4 days with Wallace J. Nichols over Memorial Day. Many hours sitting in casual conversation with others, in, around or near the water. A recently divorced mom of an 11 year old struggling to find balance, connection, herself. A counselor of vets with PTS and children with anxiety, constantly giving her all to others and not considering herself. A wife, mom, sister-in-law and grandmother, all rolled into one, and consequently carrying the hardships, pains and struggles of a family of over 25 people. A young woman dealing with a chronic auto-immune disease who is discovering water to be her solice, her source of movement, her secret for less pain. The administrator of a school for blind children, seeing, carrying and bearing the load of so many.

As souls were bared so were the stories - of water. What it had done to reconnect relationships over the weekend; what it had done to fulfill a torn soul and empower it to move forward; how it had immersed a family together to realize that their water heals, hosts and keeps their family together. 

These stories probably are not all that unique, as we all have a story, don't we? But they would never be heard if the question was never asked: What are you bringing to the water? What's on your mind? What's on your heart? Where are you at in life? Or as J. Nichols asks, what rocks are you carrying?

Ask the question. Then listen. And ask again, how does it make you feel to be around the water? Today? Yesterday? Ten years ago? Twenty years ago?

We take going to the water for granted. Sitting in the sand. Looking out to the lost horizon. Floating on a paddleboard gazing into the ripples. Being. Fulfilling. Connecting. But it's the conversation that provokes the message - that water truly can be and is our medicine.

Talking about it, asking the questions, using it in your own life, the lives of your children, your parents, your friends. Take them to the water - intentionally - and tell them why.

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