SIX DROPS
Water is life giving, we all know that, without water there simply is no life.
WE need it to live, it makes up over 50% of who we are, and yet with this status and power why do so many of us still need education and instruction to stay hydrated? I was reminded of this at a recent Doctor visit – the very first question to assess my health was ‘How much water do you drink per day?’. I used my standard diplomatic response, ‘quite a lot but probably not enough’.
It got me thinking about how much water we should be drinking – how much is enough?
So, prompted by my GP’s interest in my water intake, I went on a search to find some information and hopefully some answers.
Every day we lose water through our breath, perspiration, urine and bowel movements. For our body to function properly, we must replenish our water supply by consuming beverages and foods that contain water. Fact.
So how much fluid does the average, healthy adult living in a temperate climate need? The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine determined that an adequate daily fluid intake is:
About 15.5 cups (3.7 litres) of fluids a day for men
About 11.5 cups (2.7 litres) of fluids a day for women
YIKES! I’m going to need a bigger water bottle!
Do I dare to ask about plain vs carbonated water? Perhaps this is where I leave well enough alone because I am a devotee to the Italian liquid gold, San Pellegrino, ‘sparkling’ and beautiful bubbly water. I am holding onto the belief that this water is completely unlike any other, my vision fixed on the pathway from nature to bottle. Flowing from a natural spring in the Italian Alps, gaining its unique taste by simmering over the rocks, as it has done for hundreds of years. waiting patiently to be collected and bottled.
Digging into some statistics from the U.N. University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health.16 Mar 2023, the bottled water market saw 73% growth from 2010 to 2020, and consumption is on track to increase from around 350 billion litres in 2021 to 460 billion litres by 2030!
Water is BIG business. I am acutely aware though every time I pour a glass, add ice and a slice of lemon, fill a jug and water my plants, or indeed get a bill for my household usage how fortunate I am that I have this privileged access, a supply literally ‘on tap’. I don’t take it for granted. Not for a minute.
Everything in my life has been more intense, more vivid and absolutely more appreciated since facing the reality of my near death in 2005.
One of the longest and upon reflection perhaps most wonder filled relationships I have ever had is with the ocean. I was born and raised in a seaside suburb in picturesque Southern Australia, ‘Pattawilya’.
My memories of early childhood are filled with endless summer days watching my brother swim and surf whilst I made sandcastles and sat in the warm water pools, just slightly out of reach of the sea’s lapping edge. I was both excited by and terrified of the ocean, I guess it was my first experience of what being in ‘awe’ was. I loved all the accompaniments that came with the ocean - the feeling of walking on sand and squishing it between my toes, collecting shells and running from the incoming tide, believing that I could outwit its growing reach.
As I grew, so did my understanding of what the ocean was becoming for me – it was both my confidant and my therapist. Even though I abandoned ‘her’ and fled to the dizzy urban thrill of London, thriving in a career within Architecture, Design and the Arts, when I returned, over two decades later, I was embraced as a child returning to its Mother. But I was different than the last time, physically I could no longer paddle and walk along the water’s edge. The two limbs that grounded me also enabled me to be completely free. My legs.
There will never be an experience to equal that first moment back, staring out into the vast, endless deep blue, fixing my gaze on the seamless blend of the horizon, there was no ending and no beginning, it was whole.
I closed my eyes. The breeze across my face gently reminding me that I was present, that this moment would be etched firmly in my mind.
There are many moments like this in my increasing list of Living a second Life, I’m sure you know those experiences that just can’t be captured by a camera or a recording – they are to be felt and stored and drawn upon later.
The sounds of the Life Support machine, those beeps, they are still with me. Sometimes another sound will trigger the memory and just like that, I am transported ‘mentally’ back to those early hours and days in hospital after surviving the terrorist bomb blast. They beat the tune of surrealism, of a space and a place that is between the known and unknown. Water had a role too, of course it did, I mean in the hierarchy of all things to save life, water must sit at the top!
SIX DROPS – just six tiny drops of water was placed in the side of my mouth via a pipette. I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t move any part of my body except blink my eye lids. I wanted to scream and let them know that I am still Gill, still me inside and still me the person attached to all the beeping machines.
I want water! I need more than 6 drops!
Here is the epiphany – the source to pure motivation. How much did I WANT this, how much drive was there within to work with the seemingly impossible situation to achieve the ‘taste of success’ – drinking a glass of water.
My strategic plan; to use whatever I had to get that water and what I had, miraculously, was My MIND! I could ‘think’ my way out of my predicament. So, for hours and hours each day and night I introduced a routine of complete focussed thought, visualising holding a cup and invoking the memory of what water felt like in my mouth and rushing down my throat.
My strength was in my Mind. My ‘want’ was in my heart and soul and together these forces enabled my body to sit up enough to hold a cup of water and DRINK.
I was motivated by wanting more, by not being satisfied with ‘less than’ and crucially the need to be independent, to choose what and when and in this case, how much!
We are extraordinary Beings when we allow ourselves to be.
Go Well