This is an insight into teaching practice followed by reflections on unfolding multiple crises. On the journey from activism, through academia into deep adaptation, the author dives into the meanings of water to re-calibrate his teaching tools. Using auto-ethnography helps to identify water as a resource, research topic and a refuge. Meanings that were only partially readily available during teaching before the pandemic. As a result, the rediscovered awareness of the mental costs of learning and the need for psychological adaptation to deteriorating living conditions can be redirected back into teaching to lift difficult topics related to climate change again.