Water pours from a crack in the rocks near here. Maiden’s hair and mint cluster around the opening.
I love to scoop water to my thirsty mouth and hot face directly from it. Just imagining myself doing that even feels good.
What is that feeling? Coolness, Freshness, Vitality, Immediacy, Simplicity?
Tuning in my hearing I receive a melodic bubbling sound. My gaze softens over the ripples and light reflections. The transparency and fullness.
It is so soothing.
Asking, why do we love what we love?
When our mind uses up all of its explanations and ideas, we could turn to our body. Sitting beside a spring, what do we actually experience in our bodies?
When I search online for ‘water’, I read that it is a chemical compound consisting of hydrogen and Oxygen. In poetry I can hear that water is a ‘voice of grief, cry of love, in the flowing tear’ (John O’Donohue). In art, I see water create and destroy, pacify and awe.
In the womb, water is our universe. In the story of life on earth, water is the beginning. In this moment in my body, water is life.
It is easy to describe our ideas about water. What we know about it. But how does it feel? Why do we love to sit beside it?
We might think we have to draw conclusions about life. Sum it all up neatly. Come up with a lot of answers and explanations. Come to a place where we can say. 'Yes, I know water!'
What if instead we go and sit beside water and feel what it is to us?
Offer our attention to those everyday moments when we meet water. Experience its presence in our life. Putting on the kettle, driving through a puddle, crossing a bridge over a river.
We are not looking for any kind of special experience or revelation.
Let’s just keep asking, what is water? And listen.
Water moves through our body from our beginning until our end. Each day of our life, water comes in and goes out. Each day in the life of every life form, water is present and moving through. Coursing through apple trees and caterpillars, roses and kittens.
Water moves through life and travels around the world, slipping from creature, to ground, to plant, to sky, to river, to sea, to mountain, to eagle, to moss, to bat…It is billions of years old.
It cannot be owned.
Water has arrived here, into my hands from inside the earth. Offering life to me, and to all that come in close. Demanding nothing in return. Life offering to life. Without us even knowing what life is. Generously, abundantly, flowing out of rock, supporting life on Earth, not even asking for a name or an explanation.
When we feel the preciousness of the gift of water for ourselves, we want to honour and protect it, not only as an attractive idea, or one off celebration, but in each moment, for the love of all life on earth.
Squeaky clean
Using vinegar as a cleaner does not make your house smell like a chip shop!
So I'm not talking the brown stuff here...as in malt vinegar! I mean something like apple cider vinegar.
Yes it is true, vinegar is great for cleaning!
For years I have used white vinegar to clean the toilet and it works a treat. Just splash it around in the bowl and leave for a few hours and it can even shift limescale.
And all without damaging the environment, without poisoning water supplies.
I also use vinegar and screwed up brown paper to clean windows and the glass on the wood-burner doors.
More recently I also discovered that you can also use vinegar to clean...
- work surfaces
- kitchen and bathroom floors
- kitchen and bathroom sinks
If you want to go all exotic, you can even save citrus rinds, stuff them in a jar, cover with vinegar and leave for 6-8 weeks. Then decant via a funnel and tea strainer into bottle or a sprayer.
Vinegar is astringent, it cleans grease, and is anti bacterial. It is a great disinfectant.
For wooden surfaces, why not try natural oils? A slightly damp cloth with some drops of lavender oil makes a great furniture polish.
I am so grateful to my friend for sharing these latest tips with me. I never need to buy another can of furniture polish or chemical cleaner again! Not even Ecover!
Write a comment
Kat (Wednesday, 24 July 2019 21:40)
We are a blue planet and it is our oceans of water that give us life. I thought about your blog as I watered the garden. Thanks Frances.