As summer approaches, I’m looking forward to renewing my relationship with unfrozen water, something friendlier than winter’s snow and ice. I feel like I’ve spent the previous five months waiting for the big melt to arrive.

My special relationship with water began when I was 5 years old and my father, an avid fisherman, took me to my first fishing competition. Although merely a spectator, I managed to win an award that day. The judges presented me with a silver dollar for being the first person in the competition to fall into the water. This embarrassing but ultimately rewarding event occurred when I too hurriedly tried to negotiate a narrow bridge across a trout stream and lost my balance.

My dubious honor made the local newspaper. Although outwardly mortified, inwardly I knew my discomfort was a small price to pay to be one silver dollar richer. The water and I have been one ever since.

I taught myself to swim, when my family (reconfigured with a new stepfather) moved to an apartment complex in Las Vegas, Nevada that had a swimming pool just a few steps from our front door. The pool also attracted beautiful Vegas showgirls. This may have contributed to my enthusiasm.

I’ve always been attracted to and comfortable in water. Of all the ways I can imagine dying a horrible, tragic death – by house fire, car accident, or terrorist bomber – I find the idea of drowning unfathomable.

Growing up in the desert, my love of water found expression in swimming, snorkeling and Slip ‘n Sliding. I’d stay so long in the pool my eyes would turn bloodshot and my hair Troll Doll green. When I reached college age and moved to Utah, I discovered alpine and cross-country skiing.

I came to Maine in the early 1990s. Here, I’ve come to discover (and invest a good portion of my income in) sea kayaking and fly fishing. And while my relationship to snow and ice has soured over the years, I still can appreciate that other people find pleasure in frozen-water activities. For my money, I’ll take a warm summer day on the ocean or stream.

In “Moby Dick,” Herman Melville wrote, “Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic.” Yes, there is magic in water – whether you cast upon it, swim in it, ski on it, or fall into it, you are always rewarded.