I almost drowned!

I don't like water.

Especially if it is more than a cup or a bucket.

When it starts getting to proportions that I cannot control then I take cover quickly...

I start getting this sinking feeling in my stomach when I get near a large body of water...

When I look at it, it feels like it might happen again...

I have never forgotten that one incident with water...

Maybe that's why I don't know how to swim yet...

I will tell the story but first...

There is a silver lining...

No matter how much I dislike being around large water bodies, there is this beckoning that I feel when I see a lake, or river...

This sense of calm and serenity...

The idea that you can forget the world and her problems...

That's what I felt when I started taking these pictures...

When I saw this body of water and the shrubs around it...

I remembered how I escaped drowning...

I was gasping for air and it was by pulling on to one of the shrubs that I was able to get myself out...

My school uniform was soaked with water. My bag, all my books wet...

I didn't care, about them... I was more than grateful that I was alive...

You see the distance I stood from to take this picture...

That is my usual safe distance. It's been almost 15yrs...

But the image is still like a 4K video in my head.

But on occasion...

I feel like a superman, and I face my fears...

Like I did in other to capture these ducks...

I become agitated around large bodies of water...

Even if it doesn't look deep, I usually don't tempt the Lord...

That was the assumption I made 15yrs ago...

My brain still punishes me with the images...

But seeing these ducks so comfortable in the water...

It's like there are in their sitting room, enjoying the serenity of the water...

Sometimes, a green feeling begins to rise up from within...

That murky feeling of envy...

But then, I realize that they are ducks, I am not.

I decided to look to the sky to find solace for my fears...

But I was filled more longing...

A longing to experience the clouds the way the birds do...

Looking to the sky didn't work, so I decided to find the intersection...

I decided to look at both the sky and the water, and I found this amazing view...

Now I am enamored.

Maybe I can finally put that water incident of 15yrs away.

Maybe I can form a beneficial relationship with water again...

Nah...

I'll stick to pictures alone...