An early summer day Wivenhoe Quay
Water has shaped life on the British Isles. It was the flooding of our inland rivers that, 225,000 years ago, broke off the chalk ridge which was our last remaining tether to the continent. As powerful as it is restorative, the movement of water can offer us respite from our turbulent lives.
We intrinsically long for a renewed connection with water. Even city dwellers light up their phone screens with the sight and sound of lapping waves.
What is the value of an afternoon spent watching sunlight reflect off the waves? The answer to that question is embedded in our very nature. It can be felt, but not quantified. Like the smell of seaweed on the air, or the tickle of sand between your toes, it has a quality of its own.