Water  is around us - at least frequently so in the eastern United States. It's there. 

But think of its journey from the clouds, scrambling down a mountainside, rushing across slippery rocks in a hurry, slowing to languish in a tidal estuary that's home to birds and bug, and finally escaping into the edge of the mother ocean as the cycle is complete.

Jewell Falls, Portland, Maine

It happens in the watersheds of the St. Lawrence, Mississippi, Amazon, Rhine, Nile, Ganges, and Yellow. Water nourishes us, feeds our food, washes us, supports our common lands. It's pretty neat.
 

Waterfront, Portsmouth, NH

We moved to Maine in the early 1990's, and built a home on the edge of a large tidal marsh. One of my greatest, and most pleasant surprises was learning that the tides tell time, keep time, moderate our environment on a predictable (usually) basis. The water level changes about eleven feet up or down every six or so hours, synchronous with the universe. 
 

Outgoing tide

I take great solace that there is something out there, a system, that is changeable, beautiful, predictable, and oh so necessary.