Water Guardians
by Pennie Brownlee
by Pennie Brownlee
We had enough rain last night for my drought-browned lawn to have a very definite green tinge to it this morning. How miraculous is that? The grass was just waiting for the sacred element of water to get on with it’s magic.
“Water! It is something.”
This quote is from Dr Anna Tardos, Dr Emmi Pikler’s daughter. She was explaining why the babies and young children didn’t have any toys in the bath with them at the Piker Institute. It was a wake-up call for me, (yet another one). Of course ‘water is something’. I don’t go down to the beach with a whole load of toys. I go to be in the water, to float in it and on it, face up, face down, to be carried by it, to dive under and glide... to be in my element. There is some part of me that remembers being in water: warm womb-water, and maybe even back aeons ago when life first climbed out of the water, who knows? The scientists tell us water has memory, and each one of us is made up mostly of water, so it is possible.
Water Guardians
There is a finite amount of water on this planet, and it is all locked into some stage of the water-recycling-mechanism that supports Life on Earth. This system is sacred - sacred as in worthy of awe and respect. It isn’t just the church that deals in the sacred and in holy water; my lawn knows about holy water, as does every eel, every baby-not-yet-born, every polar bear, every camel.... Holy water needs guardians, people who behave respectfully towards this element and see that it isn’t harmed. Better still if those Guardians live and work alongside babies and young children because then they too will become Water Guardians, by osmosis so-to-speak.
Is water ‘something’ at your place?
Even though we know our life depends upon water, we still foul it and we teach children to foul it too. How many ‘educational’ institutions present water to children, not in a natural setting at ground level as it occurs naturally, but in a water trough? At chest height the children have little chance of exploring the sacred elements of water and earth as children have done for aeons. Instead dyes and dishwash-liquid are tipped into the water trough by teachers blissfully unaware they are modelling disrespect for the elements, while at the same time, teaching children how to pollute the environment. I know about this because I did it too, before I woke up.
How do we foul water? Let me count the ways
A walk down the supermarket aisle of cleaning products is terrifying for anyone with anyimagination at all. With the exception of genuine eco-friendly products, the greater majority of products are toxic and they foul holy water, despite the ‘green-wash’ on their labels. All that STUFF goes into the planet’s water system, almost all of it is used unneccessarily, and is injurious to longterm household health. Then there are the gizmos in the kitchen sink that grind up food scraps and send the sludge into the water system. Or what about pooing and peeing into treated, drinking quality water, then using litres more of drinking quality water to flush it into the sewerage ponds or worse, into rivers, lakes and the sea depending on what people think they can get away with? Agricultural and horticultural ‘fallout’ is responsible for poisoning the great and ancient underground aquifers around the planet, as well as rivers and lakes. Then there is industrial pollution - the list goes on and on.
Unto the seventh generation
The indigenous people of Turtle Island made their political decisions and tempered their behaviour with the seventh generation in mind. They asked the question, Will this be good for our decendents seven generations from now? The way we are treating the earth’s sacred water system is not even good for this generation, or the next, let alone the unto seventh generation.
For the frogs, for the ferns, for the penguins and for the sake of our children and grandchildren...
If you haven’t already, will you sign up and become a Water Guardian? The more of us who apprentice ourselves as Guardians to the Water the better the chances are for all of Life on this fantastic little planet we call Home.
"We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one."
Jacques Cousteau
"Throughout the history of literature, the guy who poisons the well has been the worst of all villains."
Unknown
“Water! It is something.”
This quote is from Dr Anna Tardos, Dr Emmi Pikler’s daughter. She was explaining why the babies and young children didn’t have any toys in the bath with them at the Piker Institute. It was a wake-up call for me, (yet another one). Of course ‘water is something’. I don’t go down to the beach with a whole load of toys. I go to be in the water, to float in it and on it, face up, face down, to be carried by it, to dive under and glide... to be in my element. There is some part of me that remembers being in water: warm womb-water, and maybe even back aeons ago when life first climbed out of the water, who knows? The scientists tell us water has memory, and each one of us is made up mostly of water, so it is possible.
Water Guardians
There is a finite amount of water on this planet, and it is all locked into some stage of the water-recycling-mechanism that supports Life on Earth. This system is sacred - sacred as in worthy of awe and respect. It isn’t just the church that deals in the sacred and in holy water; my lawn knows about holy water, as does every eel, every baby-not-yet-born, every polar bear, every camel.... Holy water needs guardians, people who behave respectfully towards this element and see that it isn’t harmed. Better still if those Guardians live and work alongside babies and young children because then they too will become Water Guardians, by osmosis so-to-speak.
Is water ‘something’ at your place?
Even though we know our life depends upon water, we still foul it and we teach children to foul it too. How many ‘educational’ institutions present water to children, not in a natural setting at ground level as it occurs naturally, but in a water trough? At chest height the children have little chance of exploring the sacred elements of water and earth as children have done for aeons. Instead dyes and dishwash-liquid are tipped into the water trough by teachers blissfully unaware they are modelling disrespect for the elements, while at the same time, teaching children how to pollute the environment. I know about this because I did it too, before I woke up.
How do we foul water? Let me count the ways
A walk down the supermarket aisle of cleaning products is terrifying for anyone with anyimagination at all. With the exception of genuine eco-friendly products, the greater majority of products are toxic and they foul holy water, despite the ‘green-wash’ on their labels. All that STUFF goes into the planet’s water system, almost all of it is used unneccessarily, and is injurious to longterm household health. Then there are the gizmos in the kitchen sink that grind up food scraps and send the sludge into the water system. Or what about pooing and peeing into treated, drinking quality water, then using litres more of drinking quality water to flush it into the sewerage ponds or worse, into rivers, lakes and the sea depending on what people think they can get away with? Agricultural and horticultural ‘fallout’ is responsible for poisoning the great and ancient underground aquifers around the planet, as well as rivers and lakes. Then there is industrial pollution - the list goes on and on.
Unto the seventh generation
The indigenous people of Turtle Island made their political decisions and tempered their behaviour with the seventh generation in mind. They asked the question, Will this be good for our decendents seven generations from now? The way we are treating the earth’s sacred water system is not even good for this generation, or the next, let alone the unto seventh generation.
For the frogs, for the ferns, for the penguins and for the sake of our children and grandchildren...
If you haven’t already, will you sign up and become a Water Guardian? The more of us who apprentice ourselves as Guardians to the Water the better the chances are for all of Life on this fantastic little planet we call Home.
"We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one."
Jacques Cousteau
"Throughout the history of literature, the guy who poisons the well has been the worst of all villains."
Unknown
| the_wonder_of_spring.pdf |
