Newsletter Feature Editorial, The Spirit of Water - Spring 2008 - © 2008, The Spirit of Water, Inc. Imagine seeing a mirror image of yourself everywhere you look. Your face is showing itself on every drop of water, every plant, tree, bird, animal... imagine this... and also, stop and listen.... you are hearing your name called on the wind as it blows around and through every living thing. It is you on the wind. "Who????" you ask. You! Need I remind you, dear friend, you are the center of the universe. Look closer. Hear your voice as it whispers through the green grass blades that are also you. You, alone, are the most influential being on the planet right now. Is that a comforting thought? Does that cause you anxiety? Pondering this possibility, do you wonder what your influence adds to the exquisite living form of water, air, fire, rocks, plants, birds, animals, humanity? What consciousness do you add to Creation? What part do you play in the Great Mystery? This is a complex query that requires serious contemplation. I tried this "naming me" exercise for a day, naming every form of life I observed with my own name. Attributing every sound I heard as coming from me. Every drop of water was me. The rain, the fog, the snow. Even the polluted water was me. It was a profound practice. My gosh! It produced a profound awakening that was both enlightening and endarkening at the same time. My shadow glared back at me as I said hello to myself in the poisoned oceans, destroyed forests, and in my own species bearing illness, confusion and pain. There is no escape from the responsibility we bear as evolved beings. We are the center of all universes, and because we are water, we become the fluidity of our enlightened and endarkened selves as our flow enters into mass consciousness. We can change ourselves and it will change life for all beings. We can endeavor to care for ourselves with more compassion and wisdom. We can bless ourselves and the food we eat, the water we drink, and the interactions we have with all our relations. It all begins with a drop of consciousness – what philosophers say is a continuous give-and-take between Self and World from which meaning emerges. Inspired by my friend's poetry and music (she's a singer/songwriter), I took her words deep into my heart and journeyed with this imagery as I hoped to find a way to answer the S.O.S. from our planet, regarding our endangered planetary supply of water: I went up on the mountain to hear the silence ring... Gone upon the mountain, gonna face my fears alone Sat down by the stream today to search my soul alone Listening to her song on my iPod as I sat by the bubbling stream in my community, and I felt the sting of tears well up as I realized that the precious water I was viewing was filled with the residue of billions of parts of elements that had been cast away without thought or identity by me and all others who are also parts of me. Did any of us "parts" stop to consider what thoughts had gone down the drain with our shampoo, bath soap, household cleaners, and foodstuffs that now had become part of this stream? Were they good thoughts filled with peace and hope? Were there any thoughts at all that accompanied what was cast away? What, if anything, could help neutralize the poison? What could I possibly bring back to consciousness that would help heal the waters of the world? Direct action, yes. Money, yes. Publicity, yes. But what could I do that was more beneficial than any of that? I let go of my pain that day, let go my fear, the next I let go of my hurt that day, my terror, the next What meaning emerges when we simultaneously send ourself OUT into the world, while enfolding the World IN to us? From a purely elementary understanding, we transform everything and everything transforms us. Whatsoever we think, say, do, pray becomes a part of The Creation that is in all of us – and it becomes part of mass consciosuness outside of us. S.O.S. from the Heart of Water is a cry for help from all life on the planet. Before we can answer the call, we must know our face and our name, and see it on everything. We must hear our voice and listen to what it is saying. We must see our imprint on consciosuness before we can change the health of the Mother Body, The Earth. We can simultaneously take our place in the higher order of consciosuness, and we can also take that order into us. The only thing, however, that will heal the shadow, the endarkenment, is to shine a light in the dark, see our faces there, gather up forgiveness and lay the past to rest. Then we breathe our light into the cosmic air of change, and know that what we did for ourselves, we did for the entire planet. There is nothing small about this healing.
Song lyrics excerpted from "Song of Myself" on "Sweet Sacred Mystery" CD by Nancy Bloom, ©2006
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