Nascence: Water

Water: I like it all. As found in nature, that is. The beach, of course. But I truly do mean all of it, or at least all that I have experienced. From the vast ocean to a tiny babbling brook, from a calm lake or a tiny tadpole pond to a roaring waterfall, to rivers of all types, the sight and sound of water gives me a feeling of connectedness that I just don't get from anything else.

Growing up in Tampa surrounded by water, I took it for granted. I guess that's what most children do, but it is the one thing about Florida that I have consistently missed. For the last 20 years, on my annual pilgrimage to Sanibel, reaching the first bridge over any body of water makes me smile inside. And even visiting my parents in Tampa, approaching the bridge onto Davis Islands makes my heart lift and my mind drift back to all the times I crossed the bay on a school bus as a child.

There is water in Atlanta, of course. There's the Chattahoochee River, and any number of smaller rivers, creeks, and ponds. And if you go a bit further outside the perimeter, there's Lake Lanier, Lake Allatoona, and many other man-made lakes as well as whitewater rivers, waterfalls, and more. But somehow that water never seemed close enough at hand, and I yearned to feel that connection more strongly, the way I had as a child.

Inverness is intertwined with water. Of course, there is the River Ness, leading to fabled Loch Ness. But there are also the firths - Beauly, Inverness, Moray, Dornoch, and Cromarty - leading to the North Sea. The North Sea! There is even a man-made waterway - the Caledonian Canal - a fascinating and historic man-made achievement in its own right. And all of this is strictly in immediate proximity to Inverness. If you venture further, you will find more water.

Enough to satisfy even me.

I've included below a small selection of photos I've taken of some of the water I've seen and experienced since arriving in Scotland a mere 4 weeks ago.