"Water
reflects the human soul. If you say, 'thank you' to water, it will be
reflected in the form of beautiful crystals overflowing with gratitude
in return."
-Masuru Emoto, The Secret Life of Water (found on the Water is Life Facebook page).
The RevGals Big Event 6.0 was wonderful. It would have been wonderful no matter the quality of the ports, the food, the speaker, or anything, but just because of the group of women assembled. However, all of those things were good.
I often tell people about the BE trips that I don't care where the boat docks, as long as I'm with the RevGals. Last year I barely got off the boat at all. Ahh, the peace of it!
This year I did go ashore in both ports - Key West and Nassau. I ended up with pictures of graves and memorial stones from both places, because that's something I really like.
Key West Cemetery with iguana and rooster
Episcopal Cathedral, Nassau, Bahamas
The speaker was especially wonderful. Rachel Hackenberg is a UCC pastor and author of Writing to God: Forty Days of Praying with My Pen. I reviewed it in 2011 and still think it's a terrific book. Rachel's presentation had us look at words, how we understand them (and don't), learning to play with words and see them differently. By the end of our time together we were writing prayers in various creative ways. It was freeing, enlightening, sometimes troubling (good growth there!) and, overall, outstanding.
One of the resources she shared with us was Masuru Emoto's The Hidden Messages in Water. From the Amazon.com book description:
This book has the potential to profoundly transform your world view. Using high-speed photography, Dr. Masaru Emoto discovered that crystals formed in frozen water reveal changes when specific, concentrated thoughts are directed toward them. He found that water from clear springs and water that has been exposed to loving words shows brilliant, complex, and colorful snowflake patterns. In contrast, polluted water, or water exposed to negative thoughts, forms incomplete, asymmetrical patterns with dull colors. The implications of this research create a new awareness of how we can positively impact the earth and our personal health.
Hmm.
The day we were in the Bahamas I came back early for a massage. The therapist who worked on me kept saying, "oh, you have lots of knots in your muscles! you have so many lumps!" Yes, yes, I know that...it's why I'm here.
After the treatment was over, she talked to me about moving out the toxins released by drinking lots of water. She said, "remember that your body is 75% water, like the ocean. Nobody cleans the ocean, it cleans itself." (Google tells me that the figure is actually about 50% for adult women.) Of course, the ocean has a hell of a lot to clean up besides its own mess. Maybe there's a parallel there with TV and internet and....
...
As I look back on these things, I see a theme of water and cleansing that goes with my word for the year, clear.
Last week I wrote a love letter, and a lot of six-word prayers. I read a memoir, ate sushi, and I rested. I talked to friends. I ate big breakfasts and drank drinks with umbrellas in them. When I was over-peopled, I went somewhere else.
Being at sea for five days, rocked on the bosom of the deep with some of my favorite people in the world...no responsibilities, no expectations, no choices in terms of clothes (wear what fit in the carry-on bag!) - was a cleansing. A washing-through that allowed my mind to detox, the knots in my thinking to work out.
May I remember the lesson in the months to come.
