Yesterday, I went for a guided nature walk led by a friend of mine. It was at some property in the neighboring town. The land had been heavily logged within the last fifteen years or so, and left looking pretty worn and sad. Then a group bought it and turned it into a non-profit permaculture education center. The land is being restored, but not with the same values that I have. I could be judgmental here, but will choose not to be. Let’s just suffice it to say that I don’t agree with portions of the permaculture ideology which in my mind puts humans at the fore. I don’t think we should always be in the forefront.

The theme of the walk was water. So at one point the leader had us all stop and he spoke to us about the importance of water, how our bodies are not a solid mass of muscle and bone, but really a fluid vessel 90% water. Our skin keeps us from drying out. He then held an imaginary goblet and asked us all to make a toast to water; he to the intricacy of a snowflake, I to the refraction of light in a rain drop, others to the connectivity of water and such. It is a nice thing to stop and take stock of what there is around us, how we depend on it, not only for our existence, but also for the spirituality connected to it. I realized it is my daily walk along the river that helps keep me sane in this ever insane world.

He also sent us on a quest by a small pool of water in a slow stream for the upside down tree. After a few minutes of many adults looking and NOT finding it, he pointed out the reflection, to again remind us to look beyond what he called the ordinary. When a group of children arrived, I told my friend to ask them. Within a minute one of the children said, oh you mean the reflection? A young mind was still able to look beyond the ordinary—or to see something further than what our adult minds had blacked out.