When you see water
©2011 by Alice Walker

When you see water in a stream

you say: oh, this is stream

water;

When you see water in the river

you say: oh, this is water

of the river;

When you see ocean

water

you say:  This is the ocean’s

water!

But actually water is always

only itself

and does not belong

to any of these containers

though it creates them.

And so it is with you.

***

Truth. We are all water; it is simple. We have placed ourselves into artificial categories, by the systems  that WE have created: religion, culture, language..hierarchies. Just as the rivers and the lakes sometimes merge and meet the sea, I have trickled into this sea where I first felt as if I didn't belong. I thought perhaps I was of the river and "they" were of the sea. But no. There is no such thing as they.  And I am free to flow where I choose because I belong everywhere, and also nowhere. Just as everyone else belongs everywhere, and nowhere, at the same time. The floodgates will inevitably be forced open.