One of the last conversations my husband had with our dear friend Patrick Blessing was about a glass of water. Dan visited Pat in the hospital, and Pat told Dan that one thing he really, really wanted was to drink a glass of ice water from a real glass. Not a paper cup, not a plastic hospital mug. Just a plain old glass of water.
Such a small thing. This struck a chord with Dan, and so he shared it with me. Pat was never one to take the little things for granted. That’s part of his legacy and something that Pat taught many of us. But this simple wish for water in a glass, in particular, has stuck with me.
I didn’t accompany Dan on that visit. I was home with our baby and didn’t think I could get away. Or I thought I’d have another chance.
So I wasn’t there, and I don’t know if Pat got his water. I hope he did.
To this day, every time I stand in my kitchen and fill a mason jar with ice cubes and tap water, I give a silent toast to Pat. And I appreciate my water. I experience it more fully because of him.
And when I’m not home, I usually drink my water from a glass water bottle. Because Pat was right. Water really does taste better when it is housed in glass. I have tried all sorts of reusable plastic water bottles – infusion water bottles, Nalgene bottles, what have you. But I always found myself abandoning them. After a few uses, they never really seemed to come clean, they smelled funky, and they were relegated to the back of my cabinet. However, once I began using glass water bottles, I found I actually (sometimes) achieved that elusive daily goal of consuming half my body weight in water.
Last weekend, I accidentally left my water bottle at the ballpark. This might have had something to do with the fact that I was juggling two baseball equipment bags and both of my children’s water bottles, plus the obligatory post-game team snacks and juice boxes. Sometimes I feel like more of a pack mule than a mother. In any event, it was suddenly time for a new water bottle. So I hopped on Amazon and ordered this baby up, and it just arrived. And I love it.
What is your favorite water bottle? Do you ever buy bottled water?