The power of change:
Snow, ice, liquid, vapor
Arctic snow, hot springs
Dew on the grass,
Clouds in the sky,
Gentle as a rippling pond
Yet mountains yield to her
Canyon carving power;
The shoreline is
Never the same,
Dissolved, reshaped and
Transformed by Water.
The ethics of Nature:
Rain doesn’t discriminate,
Falling on quiet ponds
And stormy seas.
Nor does water conform
To our will or expectations.
Humility before our vast
Water Planet and our bodies
We floated on water
In our Mother’s Womb.
Great Mother Earth,
Just a bit of land
Retrieved by Muskrat
For Turtle Island.
Original People
Bathe, Pray, and Purify,
Seek power in rivers, lakes, lagoons,
Offer seawater blessings,
Go to water’s edge
To empty the mind
Land creates an illusion of immobility
But water is always moving.
Live the continuity:
The Water Cycle
Means we are recycled:
Water in our bodies
Once home to tadpoles and trilobites;
We drink the same water
As Jesus and Geronimo,
As Cortez and Columbus.
Water is a good reminder.
Water is Life,
The life givers— Water, Women, Moon
All connected, and all protected
By those who treasure
This precious gift.
—
Kenneth Cohen is an indigenous health and culture educator. Of Russian Jewish ancestry, he was trained since his youth by Native American elders and medicine people and maintains close ties with his adoptive Nehiyaw (Cree) family. Ken is the author of Honoring the Medicine: The Essential Guide to Native American Healing (Penguin/Random House) and more than 200 articles on spirituality and health. www.honoringthemedicine.com
