Knowing Water, Knowing Ourselves: A Dynamic Path Toward Healing the Earth

This highly participatory workshop is for agriculturists, environmentalists, municipal and government leaders, teachers, students, laymen, artists, change-makers, and all those who have a passion for nature and want to know how to nurture water as an element for life and to deepen inner capacities for seeing in a new way. How we know water determines what we see of water and, therefore, how we interact with it and, ultimately, how we care for and manage it. If we see water as a commodity only, water management practices lead to fouling our waterways and ultimately a depletion of water resources; this becomes an infringement upon the right of all living beings to potable water. If we see water as a right — as “an element for life,” as an element that serves all life and environments without prejudice — then our management decisions will be different, be they how much water we use at home or what we see used in the public domain. We have a fourfold relationship to water: we drink it to quench our thirst; we use it as a waste stream (too much so); we enjoy its recreational virtues, whether we swim, sail, or ski; and we use it as a symbol and metaphor in our sacred lives and sacraments to connote transformation and change of consciousness. Present water education emphasizes pollution issues on the one hand, and engineering issues on the other, manipulating water and asking it to do our bidding. But we know comparatively little about the nature of water as such, its “character”, when left to unfold its innate qualities. Water reveals its phenomena through “how” it moves. Through hands-on experiments, making fleeting water-movement forms visible and carefully describing what we see and experience, we will be lead towards increasing our observational skills and developing an understanding of what water is. We will allow water to become “our teacher” as we endeavor to understand water’s language of movement. In the process, we acquire inner mobility in our thinking, a “fluidic thinking” that helps us to follow processes in nature. In part 2 of this workshop, participants will take water relationship-building further when water and earth science is opened to water art. The discovery process will shift when the tools of science are transformed into tools for art and creative experimentation. Shared aspects of science and art, inquiry, surprise, observation, phenomena, discussion, and documentation will reveal new pathways for seeing and relating to the natural world. Together with the water experience, teaching stories of successful water advocacy and activism will be shared in the spirit of inspiring furthering actions that are informed by the deepening water connection this workshop will provide.

Read more about the 3-day themed workshops.