Water is everywhere; our Earth is more than 70 percent water. It rolls, salt-filled, in our vast oceans. It hangs suspended in the clouds above us. According to Chinese medicine, Water is the element of Fear and Winter. You’ve never felt fear until you see a tidal wave rise ninety feet into the air, ready to crash down on your house and obliterate your hometown. Or, until you realize floodwaters will break the fragile levees that stand between your family and destruction. Or, closer to home in this dry year, we have felt afraid knowing that for some reason, the weather was withholding its water. This summer and fall, the familiar sound of rain falling was all too rare; for months, clouds visited our area, unwilling to give their gift of water, and the land turned to dust. Wells that had provided for long showers and endless green lawns for years ran dry. What to do? The waters of the world, in their excess and their deficiency, have enormous power.

Our area has been experiencing the worst drought in 100 years1 in this part of the world. Without drought, would we even give rain a second thought? Annoyed, we curse its marring of our clothes, our hairstyles, and our plans for the day. We call a rainy day “nasty,” “gloomy,” and just generally “bad weather.” Since we don’t like rain, let’s get rid of it and look on the sunny side.

Just a few hundred years ago, give or take, in all of the world’s cultures, water from the sky was given the highest honor. When our ancestors lived in tipis, yurts, or structures made from mud and branches, when they had no grocery stores but instead depended on the balance of rain, snow and sunlight to provide the right conditions for their precious food to grow, they prayed for rain. Weather workers were people born into and trained into the traditions of calling the rain during drought and breaking up clouds if rain was too abundant. Some nations had their rain dances, and some sang songs to the sky.

A handful of these traditions are still alive today. In Mexico, as in many lands, there are two seasons: a rainy one and a dry one. In the Nahua/Aztec tradition of that land, elaborate fiestas are thrown in honor of the rain at the beginning and end of the rainy season, without which the people’s crops would not grow. Groaning tables are laid with offerings to the sky—huge, succulent platters of meat and baskets overflowing with bread; mouthwatering fruit, tobacco and tequila, fragrant bouquets of colorful flowers. The people are grateful, but not surprised, when after the offerings are made and the prayers are said, the clouds roll in and gentle rains fall on the land once again. These people know that the rain brings us everything; without it, all we have is dry dust.

It may take several years of drought conditions for us to really feel the impact of the weather on our own food supply. However, rationing of water is upon us. In Georgia, one of the hardest-hit states, total watering restrictions and the shutdowns of major water features (like the Fountain of Rings at Centennial Olympic Park and the Coca-Cola Snow Mountain at Stone Mountain) were instated. In November, the state’s over three million residents faced the news that only three months of water were left in their natural reservoirs. Georgia governor Sonny Perdue asked Georgians to pray for rain. What a hue and cry was raised from that request! “It is…an absurd, foolish thing to do, and it makes the state of Georgia and Georgians like myself look dumb,” said Georgian Ed Buckner.2

I wonder if Mr. Buckner knows that for thousands of years, human beings have made relationship to the elements, relationships based on gratitude for the gifts of nature. Now, in this short, scientific blip of history, these relationships are considered “dumb” and our single species has managed to initiate unparalleled environmental destruction and play a huge role in our own current and future suffering.

In November, two weeks after Governor Perdue’s prayer vigil, much-needed rain fell in Western North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The rain has continued on and off for the last few months, and now in early January a good, seasonal snow is falling in western NC and thunderstorms are predicted in Atlanta for next week. Who should we thank? On my list, right after the rain, the clouds, the wind, and the thunder, is Governor Perdue and all the others who, publicly or privately, prayed for this water. Gratefulness is such a simple thing, and so important. It can be offered in any tradition that speaks to your heart. As Grandmother Sara Smith, an Iroquois elder, asked in a talk I attended, how many of us go outside when water falls from the sky, offer tobacco and give thanks?

Sources: (1) “Drought-Stricken South Facing Tough Choices,” October 15, 2007. The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/us/16drought.html. (2) “Georgians Pray for Rain ... Literally,” Nov. 13, 2007. ABC News, http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3857886.

RESPECT YOUR WATER
In addition to spending time appreciating the gifts of the sky, here are five down-to-earth tips you can do at home to conserve our precious water:

1. Fix leaky faucets and plumbing joints. Saves 20 gallons per day for every leak stopped.

2. Use a broom instead of a hose to clean driveways and sidewalks. Saves 150 gallons or more each time. At once a week, that’s more than 600 gallons a month.

3. Dispose of hazardous materials properly! One quart of oil can contaminate 250,000 gallons of water, effectively eliminating that much water from our water supply. Contact your city or county for proper waste disposal options. And, don’t flush prescription medications!

4. Put a plastic bottle or a plastic bag weighted with pebbles and filled with water in your toilet tank. Displacing water in this manner allows you to use less water with each flush. Saves 5 to 10 gallons a day. That’s up to 300 gallons a month, even more for large families. Better yet, for even greater savings, replace your water-guzzling five to seven gallon a flush toilet with a one and a half gallon, ultra-low flush model.

5. When washing dishes by hand, use the least amount of detergent possible. This minimizes rinse water needed. Saves 50 to 150 gallons a month.
For these tips and more, visit http://www.monolake.org/socalwater/wctips.htm

Erin Everett is the founder and publisher of New Life Journal.

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