“Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.” – Lao Tzu

This special issue of The Arrow Journal came together around a core question: how do we navigate turbulent waters with clarity, strength, and suppleness? The articles, essays, poetry, and art contained within offer our readers diverse teachings on water through various streams of inquiry.

This special issue is also complemented by a seminar and podcast series featuring martial artists, nondual spiritual practitioners, and movement leaders including Cynthia Ong, Paloma Schultz, Reverent Greg Snyder, and Autumn Brown beginning April 7, 2026. We hope you will join us!

Issue Contents

Chief Editor’s Introduction 
Brooke D. Lavelle

Doing “Nothing” as Ecological Practice
Derek Gladwin and Naoko Ellis

The Way of Water, the Way of (re)Existence: Embodied Contemplations on Grief, Precarity, and the Power of Transmutations
Megan M. Fowler

Something Worth Defending
Brooke D. Lavelle

The End of ‘The World’: Contemplation and the Decolonisation of the Self
Peter Doran

Shifting Tides, Strength in Yielding
Karen Barbour, Johanna Claus, Michelle Duffy, Penny Dunstan, Melina Ey, Rodrigo Hill, Jess Lemire, Liz Murphy-May, Jean-Louise Oliver, Meg Sherval

We Are All Holy Water
Alyssa Smaldino

swimming breast stroke as a swamped thing
Juliana Roth

Riding the Waves: Grief, Practice, and the Wisdom of Water
Ansje Miller

What Endures in Times of Collapse
Monika L Son

Navigable Waters: Binding Together to Find Our Way
Rachel Hale

Cover art and issue art by Elena Brower