Water is the staff of life… without fresh drinking water we would all die fairly quickly and painfully, and yet our world is busily polluting and otherwise destroying water at an alarming rate.
Did you know the large majority of our body mass is water? We come from water in the mother’s womb, and the water leaves us after we die…
Many cultures and religions have prayer ceremonies that revolve around water… often praying as a group over water that everyone drinks in order to obtain the wondrous blessings. I personally believe that prayers put into the water with all your heart will indeed bring blessings to all who drink. Water used this way can also be Medicine. I also believe that as the waters of this earth are entirely connected Globally through oceans, evaporation, rainfall, snow melt, and spring runoff into streams and rivers back to the Ocean. As I put my hand into a cold mountain stream and say a prayer for those I love or for the world at large, that prayer can benefit others far away as they take a drink of water or wade in a stream or even a shower.
I live in a land that seems to have lots of water everywhere… waterfalls, rivers, lakes, and not far away from here the Columbia River runs into the Ocean… we have rain, and snow that melts providing water for the summer..
Nevertheless, I often hear speak of running short on our water supply each summer due to less snow pack and rainfall, more residents, greater drainage and usage. We should have a system pulling irrigation water from the local rivers for all the farms and gardens… but instead we water our lawns and gardens with the good drinking water. One thing that always intrigued me is the fact that we even use good precious drinking water in our toilets to pee into! There is much knowledge out there about Gray water reclaiming, and yet it is not used. The water from showers and laundry can be filtered and channeled into toilets and out into gardens and especially orchards… but it is not done. My deceased husband David Reel did a great deal of design work utilizing gray water reclamation, but we could not actually install all of his ideas at the house we built in Port Townsend back in 1991 because of laws restricting gray water use.
Water… a many faceted subject.. did you ever think of how water, H2O, consists of 2 hydrogen molecules and one Oxygen molecule combined. Certain conditions can split these molecules apart, and they can recombine to form other substances… including part of our own cells. 2 free oxygen molecules combine to make the oxygen we breathe (O2), and later combine with one Carbon molecule within our body to become Carbon Dioxide (CO2) which we breathe out. Trees and many plants absorb CO2, and put off Oxygen that benefit us. The Oxygen combines again with Hydrogen and becomes water once more.
Water… so complex, so necessary to life in its many forms. Spiritually and physically sustaining, water is critical to our health… how do you treat your water?
Starlisa Black Photography 
That osprey shot is awesome!!
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Hi Rebecca, thank you! I have a series of that guy, sitting on a log with the fish so big he almost could not fly away with it
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What you say here can’t be said enough. It’s like we are soiling our own nest. But there is hope. The Northwest has a lot of governmental structures that help to educate people water wise and manage the watersheds for good stewardship.
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John you are so right… and the water classes are fascinating, I took one in Washington from an extension office years ago.
thanks for coming by, my friend!
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