Coffee With Water Bodies
If you were having coffee with me, I’d welcome you to my tangled thoughts and ask if you knew just how much we have in common… You’re made of about 70% water, I’m made of about 70% water, the planet is 70% water, and guess where life began? In water. Coincidence? I think not.
Water is life.
Also, apparently, water is vibes. 😂
There’s a research article in the Journal of Environmental Psychology that says gazing at water bodies can lower your heart rate, blood pressure, and increase relaxation. Translation: if you’re broke, stressed, and about to throw hands with your landlord, just stare deeply into a puddle for emotional support, I wonder if a water glass counts, I really hope it does.
Anyway, whether it’s crashing ocean waves, or a picture-perfect fountain, a flowing river, a quiet pond, or a puddle in a pothole, looking at water bodies is good for your brain chemistry. Apparently, that boosts serotonin and oxytocin levels, and creates a sense of awe, and remind you that you are a small squishy mortal, in a vast blue existence. Humbling, no?
You’ve probably know about green spaces, where you stop and smell the roses, touch grass, while pretending to digitally detox. But have you heard about blue spaces? Where sky meets sea, or lake or river meets a not as spectacular horizon. Studies show that proximity to water improves physical and mental well-being or maybe its just the fun in the sun. Vitamin D does play a crucial role in brain function and overall mental well-being.
If you were having coffee with me, I’d ask when you last visited a water body. Maybe you’re blessed to live on the coast. Maybe a river runs through your backyard like a movie-set cabin in the woods. Or maybe you, like me, live in a landlocked country that’s slowly turning into a desert where rivers are silted, hyacinth-infested settings for ghost stories filled with vengeful souls sacrificed to marine spirits in get rich quick schemes. Climate change, is that you?
When I was growing up, everything looked greener and bluer. The playground was a place for kids and not a trap house slash brothel in disguise. Little lakes trickled through the drainage canals, like kids on their way home, now raw sewage calls calls it home. Water is supposed to be calming, but when I look at the backyard pond, all I see is the green 💩
But hey, at least I have a pond in the backyard, right? Then there is the city centre fountain that is either empty, algae-green, or cascading, depending on the season or who’s visiting the SADC Chairman. Where is the water? Where are the rains?’
If you were having coffee with me, I’d tell you that it’s a vicious cycle, water scarcity means less vegetation, high temperatures with less transpiration, therefore less rain, rinse and repeat. It’s a feedback loop from ecological hell which will only get worse… There’s a movie with a theory that global warming is like when you have a fever and the body is trying to purge the virus. What If… we are the planet’s virus.
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that maybe going to see the newly opened interchange which has 15 bridges in its network, might be the closest to going to the beach for some us, as its become quite the hangout spot, with some schools offering school field trips to go see Trabablas Interchange, cheers to the eternal opportunists and hopefully optimists yeah?
Whats been going on in your neck of the woods?
~B
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Support my tangle of words ^_^ coffee ☕ Get me to a water body.
$2.00
Becoming The Muse 
Your thoughts.. if you will?