Water Sounds

I am preoccupied with, fixated on, obsessed with water sounds.  Yes, I am a Leo with a Cancer rising, and the Cancer often wins in the needs department, including the need for water sounds.  And yes, I have what we know of as ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder.  But I also have burned out buffers, so I need the white noise that water sounds afford.  So I have some kind of white noise going 24-7-365, typically a fan, which to me, if you listen just right, in between the mechanical output, you get water sounds.  Ideally, however, actual water sounds, er, sounds made by real water, bring the most comfort to anyone who is amped up, wired, stressed out. 

I started the search for the perfect water sounds when I was in grad school.  I was sleeping only two to four hours a night, as I had school and three jobs, and I needed the down time to be of optimum relaxation.  So I bought my first water sounds tape.  I have always been partial to rain, wishing it rained every day of the year, so I found a stormy waters tape.  That first night, I loaded the tape, settled in, and began to fall into REM surrounded by storm, rain, thunder, and general water sounds ranging from gushes to trickles.  LOVED that part.  Then, all of a sudden, the rain cleared, and the next God-awful sounds on the tape were of yelling and chittering Toucans! Celebrating the easing of the storm, I guess, but absolutely ruining my submersion into straight up water sounds slumber.

I then tried a sound machine.  But being relatively poor, I chose a cheap version, one which played ocean and rain but which also sounded like a machine playing simulated, mechanical, ocean and rain and other water sounds.  I eyed the faucet in my one-room studio, thinking if I got the flow just right I could produce my own water sounds and be able to sleep and study and live that way…but, of course, that is ridiculous for anyone, never mind for someone living in the ultra water-conservative California. 

I have been fortunate of late.  After moving fairly close to the ocean, living temporarily with a friend, but having the ocean just far enough away that I couldn’t hear it, I moved into a super remote area—where there is, a few feet from my front door, a running, vociferous, absolutely mind-numbing/soothing stream!  Ah, real, organic water sounds…as God, Mother Nature, and every other beneficent entity intended!