Water Is Life
There are many ways Earth exists in the “Goldilocks zone,” for everything we need is in the habitable sweet spot. In the vastness of the cosmos, our position is unique. We are not too close and not too far from our star; we are “Just Right.” This is particularly true of water; if we were a bit closer, our planet would be scorching like Venus, and water would evaporate immediately. A bit further away from the sun, like Neptune, and water would be deeply frozen ice. This position makes our water just right for life to evolve. We are the only planet in our solar system to have accessible water.
This accessibility of water on earth occurs as stable bodies of liquid water on the surface: streams, tributaries, rivers, lakes, wetlands, deltas and oceans. We have deep deposits of water underground, in aquifers that are continually replenished by rainfall. We also have deposits of ancient waters ~ fossil water ~ formed in the original shaping of the earth. Water graces us in solid forms as well, in our glaciers and ice caps; also in atmospheric ice and water vapor, as well as in the magic of snowfall.
Earth and our bodies are both composed of approximately seventy percent water. Ninety-seven percent of this water is saline and contained in oceans, while only 3% exists as fresh water. This is a clarion call to protect our hydrologic cycle, which provides us with the rare and precious gift of fresh water!
Our water, like the minerals that formed earth, came as gifts from the stars: it came from comets and asteroids. As these celestial bodies collided with earth, much of their water was transferred to earth, where it was able to remain ~ neither burned away in the atmosphere, nor frozen as ice. Some have posed the Theia hypothesis: there is a possibility that a twin planet collided with a newly-forming earth. This collision may have given earth a larger core as well as doubling earth’s water. It may also have created our Moon. When I think of this, I am reminded of the eternal love relationship between the moon and the oceans; the waters always following their original love.
Here is a love poem to further celebrate the miracle of Water, who is the mother of life:
Water beings arrive as
pure benediction.
Ice diamonds fall through
interstellar space, drift
into earth’s warm breath
to become mist
hovering above
river’s slow elbow.
Translucent curtains of rain
billow in valley breezes.
Drops sipped from
cupped hands
will flow differently, now,
eddying among veins
osmosing cell walls
hydrating neural highways.
Particles of human thought
will flow out to soil organisms
migrate into Ivy Creek
eager to find the sea
be pummeled by surf
pause in tidal pools
before becoming
northern blue ice
an Inuit kayak
paddling close.
The prose is reprinted from my recent book Rewilding the Human Heart, and the poem is from an earlier book of mine, A Litany of Wild Graces
More ways to connect with me
Wild Graces website: https://www.sharifaoppenheimer.org
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Photo Mike Lewis on Unsplash