Ramona Blue

by Julie Murphy

Water has always been my siren song. Any kind of water—oceans, lakes, pools. There’s something about being weightless that makes me think anything is possible. My whole body exhales in a way that it can’t when I’m standing on land.

My heart is elastic. I realize it for the first time. For so long I thought there was a limit to how much love I could hold and who I could give it to. But life is so much more dynamic than that. Love doesn’t disappear when you give it away, and new love doesn’t make old love any less legitimate.

Afterward, I jumped into the pool to cool off. I let my body sink down to the bottom of the deep end. As I sat there, testing my lung capacity, I realized wherever I can find water, I can find home. I am home.