echo Compiled by Nimue Wafiya
Prompt: Which part of nature do you identify with?
I think I associate myself with water. Sea or lake, I just relate with the emotional depth of water. I feel too deeply, and it kind of becomes me drowning in a sea of my own catastrophe.
– Natasha
To me, the clouds in the sky encapsulate a figurative personality that I liken to my own. Particularly, I liken my mind and mood to the traits of the clouds. Sometimes my mind is the scattered cirrus, spread across and streaked over the sky’s expanse, or a dense mass of rainstorm-threatening gloomy nimbuses looming over my world, or even the bright, fluffy cumulus clouds, beaming in gathered clumps, floating idle on a sunny day. I go about my days, constantly trying to seek and maintain balance in life, usually with my cloud-mind low and close to the solid ground of reality, but sometimes beckoning towards the limit of the sky, hopeful and optimistic, with my mind in the clouds, so to speak. Like the clouds, there are times where my thoughts are stagnant, with no direction, no purpose, stifling the air with humidity as I yearn for change. Yet when the winds of change do come, they’re carried back and forth in anxious uncertainty as they veer into places unknown and unexpected. The gentle, everyday presence of clouds feel as natural to me as the time I spend alone, in the quiet, with only my own unruly thoughts for company.
– Jaclyn Heng
Tree roots that travel deep into the Earth, pushing their way through, always searching for richer soil. Sturdy and unchangeable, stubbornly digging through rough patches or adapting to continue growing around rocks. Roots with hundreds of branches, sub-branches, sub-sub-branches, chaotic yet orderly, my mind palace is filled with dirt.
(I drink a lot of water too.)
– Fajar binti Benjamin
The ocean has always felt so near and dear to my heart. Ever since I was a kid I remember spending a lot of my holidays and weekends going to the beach with my family. The ocean is calm yet on certain days she can stir up a storm. The ocean is vast and deep and holds so many secrets only few know of. I love the ocean. It makes me feel happy. It makes me feel like I belong.
– Anonymous
The ocean. Everytime i visit the beach, I instantly feel a sense of connection to the world around me. I find my breath coming and going with the vibrato of waves hitting against the shore, I feel myself getting calmer when the water is still, and when the wind hits the sea and it ripples up in a wave, a rush of energy flows through my body, as if the water and I are one. Being in the presence of such a divine creation distracts me from reality for a bit, gives me a sense of relief and gratitude to be immersed in nature.
– Anonymous
Someone I once loved very much told me that seeing me was like seeing the start of a new day, regardless of what time it really was. That it was optimism, even if it came from a sad place. The thought of being a representation of dawn struck a chord in me. It really brought into perspective how improving yourself to be a happier person is a contagious thing.
The things I do matter still. The things you do matter still.
– Anonymous
I identify myself with the sea the most . Something about the breeze of the ocean and the sands bring me to a state of calmness, happiness and peace. That moment of snorkelling in the ocean, the sight of nothing but the blue beneath the ocean that seems to have no end and lying on the boat later, just, watching the sky. It’s paradise. The sea, it makes you realise how small you are in this world. The vast amount of creatures beneath your boat that are so lucky to swim and explore the ocean makes one humble down within to a realisation that we are just another species. We are so restricted that we have not explored all of earth just yet. How the lava looks we know, can we see it near as it explodes? Can we explore the deepest sea beds and live there to witness all the animals beneath ourselves? Swimming in the ocean has given me a satisfaction nothing can ever replace. A state of bliss I can’t decipher or explain. I would never trade the experience with anything else in the world. The ocean is simply beautiful.
– Mugilaa Selvaraja
When I was young, they told me artists were few and far between. They told me I had a gift, a talent, a specialty that was as rare as a diamond shining in this dull, dull earth. So I worked hard, and polished my skills, and made drawings that positively gleamed in my eyes.
But now, the world of art has changed. Drawings that once seemed amazing and incredible now comprise my sketchbook of shame. Genuinely gifted artists come out of the mud to shine their light onto our eyes. Do they ever tell you that diamonds are actually the most common gemstones? Do they ever tell you that the profits come off of exploiting the hard work of miners? Do they ever tell you that despite being “the hardest material on earth”, they’re actually very, very easy to break? Because I wish someone did, because now it all seems so worthless to me.
– Anonymous
The Sun
She stands alone, yet her glow reaches multitudes.
She shines bright with no rivalry because her spark is from within. Her morning glory makes the birds sing and the darkness to flee. She always goes down, but she is strong enough to keep coming back up. She was born for eternity, her spark will never fade!
There is no one like her. The human race has come and gone, but she has established herself firmly.
Catastrophes happen here below, but nevertheless, she still glows. Have you ever seen such glory? Have you tasted such magnificence? It’s power indescribable! It is Eternal glory. She was made for eternity, her spark will never fade!
– Christine Nachamba Sitambuli
Just like how calm a river is during full moon, I am calm and placid in nature, just like how still waters run deep. The mind is like the water. When it’s turbulent, it’s difficult to see but when it’s calm, everything becomes clear. Be like water, still water.
– Anonymous
A raindrop. A raindrop that is hanging onto the edge of some skyscraper’s windowsill.
A raindrop that tremors and quivers. A raindrop that takes the jump, embracing life and death and everything in between fearlessly. A raindrop called me.
– Yumitra Kannan
