St. Louis Earthday 2001-Water and Spirituality

*Our Water, Our Rivers* Back to Earthday Home \| Symposium Registration \| Earth Day for Teachers \| To St. Louis Earth Day-Postnet \| 4/19, 4/21, 4/22, 4/27, Other Dates
Water and Spirituality SECTIONS: Giver and sustainer of life \| Nature's mirror \| Washes and Cleanses \| Reminds Us \| Movement and Change \| Herald of Change \| Represents the Emotions \| Credits

Earth Day 2001 is on Sunday, April 22. The theme for St. Louis Earth Day is "Our Water, Our Rivers". Water is a sacred element in religious traditions around the world. Listed below are quotes relating to water and spirit. We invite you to include them in sermons or ceremonies celebrating water and God's creation on Earth Day weekend, April 21-22, 2001.

Water: Giver and sustainer of life
	Life processes take place in an aqueous medium. All organisms are composed mostly of water, whether they dwell in the oceans, lakes, and rivers, or on the land. Because the physical and chemical properties of water are well suited to the requirements of life, it is no accident that life is a water-based phenomenon. —Ecology, Robert E. Ricklefs
	Water sustains all. —Thales of Miletus TOP
Water: Nature's mirror for that which lies within us.
	Human beings are made up mostly of water, in roughly the same percentage as water is to the surface of the earth. Our tissues and membranes, our brains and hearts, our sweat and tears--all reflect the same recipe for life, in which efficient use is made of those ingredients available on the surface of the earth. We are 23 percent carbon, 2.6 percent nitrogen, 1.4 percent calcium, 1.1 percent phosphorous, with tiny amounts of roughly three dozen other elements. But above all we are oxygen (61 percent) and hydrogen (10 percent), fused together in the unique molecular combination known as water, which makes up 71 percent of the human body. So when environmentalists assert that we are, after all, part of the earth, it is no mere rhetorical flourish. Our blood even contains roughly the same percentage of salt as the ocean, where the first life forms evolved. They eventually brought onto the land a self-contained store of the sea water to which we are still connected chemically and biologically. Little wonder, then, that water carries such great spiritual significance in most religions, from the water of Christian baptism to Hinduism's sacred water of life. —Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, Al Gore
	Our bodies are molded rivers. —Novalis A Prayer before reading Scripture on a rainy day Your wet words of life in thousands of thin sentences saturate my meditation as I lift up my heart to you, O God of rain-gifts. The earth, like an ear, soaks up your words. Oh, that my heart would do the same. Soften my heart, O God of living waters, that the shower of Scripture I am about to read may enrich the soil of my soul. Rain down your wisdom in sacred streams to carry me like an upturned leaf through the currents of this gray day. Amen —Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim,Edward Hays TOP
Water: Washes us and cleanses us and purifies us.
	Water is God's Gift to living souls, to cleanse us, to purify us, to sustain us and to renew us. —from a Jewish celebration ceremony for the bride Water is the formless potential out of which creation emerged. It is the ocean of unconsciousness enveloping the islands of consciousness. Water bathes us at birth and again at death, and in between it washes away sin. It is by turns the elixir of life or the renewing rain or the devastating flood. —Writing from the Center, Scott Russell Sanders At the baptismal ceremony at my church, the parents hand the shining baby over to the minister. He looks down lovingly, dips his hand in the water, touches the luminous head three times, and says, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You are a child of the Covenant, called by name, cherished, known, blessed by the grace of God." Called by name. This brand new creature, called by name. I gasp every time I hear the words. The self, the soul: created, known, immortalized, saved. —The Sacred Depths of Nature, Ursula Goodenough To serve the cause of water adequately... We must get to know it in its true being. And how do we do this? Why, by treating it in the very way exemplified by its own behavior; that is, whenever we encounter it, we wash the tablet of our souls clean of all other impressions in order to allow the being of water to make its imprint on us. —Water–The Element of Life, Theodor Schwenk TOP
Water: Reminds us that we are neither separate from God nor separate from one another.
	Becoming Water... ...I no longer relate to me. I am pure water–yet more. I flow in the river that contains me... I no longer experience through eyes or ears. I perceive. I am a liquid that fills every part of the Earth. I can feel the consciousness of the Earth, the rhythm of its breath. I flow among the dense particles of solid rock, knowing the rock's consciousness. I am all puddles, ponds, lakes, and oceans. No longer an isolated entity, I flow in savage splendor down rocky ravines, laughing as the sound of torrential, thundering water bounces and echoes from the rocks. I lie in calm tranquility in icy, land-locked lakes containing the fish that swim in my sluggish depths. I am rain falling from the skies, and, frozen, I fall as snow. ...I flow toward the sea... —Journey into Nature: A Spiritual Adventure, Michael J. Roads O wayfarer in the path of God! Take thou thy portion of the ocean of God's grace, and deprive not thyself of the things that lie hidden in its depths. Be thou of them that have partaken of its treasures. A dewdrop out of this ocean would, if shed upon all that are in the heavens and on the earth, suffice to enrich them with the bounty of God, the Almighty, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. With the hands of renunciation draw forth from its life-giving waters, and sprinkle therewith all created things, that they may be cleansed from all man-made limitations and may approach the mighty seat of God, this hallowed and resplendent Spot. — based on the writings of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha. That flowing water! That flowing water! My mind wanders across it. That broad water! That flowing water! My mind wanders across it. That old age water! That flowing water! My mind wanders across it. —Myth of the Mountaintop Way quoted in Navajo Wildlands The Japanese tea master Sen no Rikyu built a teahouse on the side of a hill overlooking the sea. Three guests were invited to the inaugural tea ceremony. Hearing about the beautiful site, they expected to find a structure that took advantage of the wonderful view. After arriving at the garden gate, they were perplexed to discover a grove of trees had been planted that obstructed the panorama. Before entering the teahouse, the guests followed the traditional custom of purifying their hands and mouths at the stone basin near the entry. Stooping to draw water with a bamboo ladle, they noticed an opening in the trees that provided a vision of the sparkling sea. In that humble position they awakened to the relationship between the cool liquid in the ladle and the ocean in the distance, between their individuality and the ocean of life. —The Temple in the House, Anthony Lawlor TOP
Water: Brings movement and change
	Water flows humbly to the lowest level. Nothing is weaker than water, yet for overcoming what is hard and strong, nothing surpasses it.— Lao Tzu Being is epitomized, not by impenetrable rocks, but by waves spreading themselves over the surface of the sea. These perfectly exemplify change, and the eternally changeless. — With Heart and Mind, Richard Taylor I was sitting on the beach one summer day, watching two children, a boy and a girl, playing in the sand. They were hard at work building an elaborate sandcastle by the water's edge, with gates and towers and moats and internal passages. Just when they had nearly finished their project, a big wave came along and knocked it down, reducing it to a heap of wet sand. I expected the children to burst into tears, devastated by what had happened to all their hard work. But they surprised me. Instead, they ran up the shore away from the water, laughing and holding hands, and sat down to build another castle. I realized they had taught me an important lesson.—When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough, Harold Kushner To my fellow swimmers: There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift, that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore, they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know that the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our heads above the water. And I say see who is there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves, for the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt. The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves. Banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones we have been waiting for.—Message from the Hopi Elders 2001 TOP
Water: Herald of crisis. The time for healing is now
	All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. His instincts prompt him to compete for his place in that community, but his ethics prompt him also to co-operate (perhaps in order that there may be a place to compete for). The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals...—A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold For many of us, water simply flows from a faucet, and we think little about it beyond this point of contact. We have lost a sense of respect for the wild river, for the complex workings of a wetland, for the intricate web of life that water supports. We have been quick to assume rights to use water but slow to recognize obligations to preserve and protect it... In short, we need a water ethic--a guide to right conduct in the face of complex decisions about natural systems we do not and cannot fully understand. —Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity, Sandra Postel We depend especially on fresh water, which is only 2.5 percent of the total amount of water on earth. Most of that is locked away as ice in Antarctica and to a lesser extent in Greenland, the north polar ice cap, and mountain glaciers. Groundwater makes up most of what remains, leaving less than .01 percent for all the lakes, creeks, streams, rivers, and rainfalls...but it is distributed unevenly throughout the world...human civilization has been restricted to...geographic pattern that conforms to the distribution of fresh water around the planet. Any lasting alteration of that pattern would therefore pose a strategic threat to global civilization as we have known it. Unfortunately, the dramatic change in our relationship to the earth since the industrial revolution, especially in this century, is now causing profound damage to the global water system... — Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, Al Gore I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river is a strong brown god–sullen, untamed and intractable, Patient to some degree, at first recognized as a frontier; Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce; Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges. The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten By the dwellers in cities--ever, however, implacable. Keeping his seasons, and rages, destroyer, reminder Of what men choose to forget. Unhonored, unpropitiated By worshippers of the machine, but waiting, watching and waiting. —Dry Salvages, The Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot (A description of the Mississippi River with a reference to Eads Bridge) TOP
Water: Represents the emotions & awakens us to our essential nature
	I loved the rain as a child. I loved the sound of it on the leaves of trees and roofs and windowpanes and umbrellas and the feel of it on my face and bare legs. I loved the hiss of rubber tires on rainy streets and the flip-flop of windshield wipers. I loved the smell of wet grass and raincoats and shaggy coats of dogs. A rainy day was a special day for me in a sense that no other kind of day was–a day when the ordinariness of things was suspended with ragged skies drifting to the color of pearl and dark streets turning to dark rivers of reflected light and even people transformed somehow as the rain drew them closer by giving them something to think about together, to take common shelter from, to complain of and joke about in ways that made them more like friends than it seemed to me they were on ordinary sunny days. But more than anything, I think, I loved rain for the power it had to make indoors seem snugger and safer and a place to find refuge in from everything outdoors that was un-home, unsafe. I loved rain for making home seem home more deeply... — The Sacred Journey,Frederick Buechner I f there is magic on the planet, it is contained in the water.—Loren Eisley May the Great Spirit watch over you as long as the rivers shall run and the grass shall grow. — Native American Blessing The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. —John 37, Holy Bible "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters..." — Psalm 23:1-2 Holy Bible NRSV TOP
CREDITS These quotes on water were assembled by the Institute of Noetic Sciences Environmental Pathfinding Committee, which includes representatives from Voices for Survival, Trinity Presbyterian Church, St. Louis Earth Day, Inner Mission for World Peace, Sisters of Loretto, St. Louis Aquatic Healing Center, Missouri Coalition for the Environment, School Sisters of Notre Dame, Mercy Center, Sisters of Earth, PanEurythmy, Eman8ions, and Heart Beat. Thanks to the Religious & Spiritual Resource Center, 6361 Clayton Avenue, for providing a meeting space for our committee.