Movementers: keeping the rivers alive

by Shai Zakai

As I considered the question “what are our moral and civic responsibilities to water?” I went outside, stood by my favorite tree, faced the dry stream below, and thought about the urgency of keeping the movements and vibrations of water free, clean, and alive. Closing my eyes, I could see another stream—my mothers’ childhood stream, running right past her doorstep. This stream manifested the very essence of all life, a powerful being and a constant blessing perceived through multiple senses: sound, sight, touch, and smell. Opening my eyes, staring at the dry stream in front of me, I realized that my mother’s stream no longer runs near her house; it has been diverted and is now partially dry, its life forces remain only at the upper part of the stream, near its source.

Standing there, under the tree and near the dried stream, imagining all the movements of rivers, streams, and creeks, I think of a word, a new term, to describe the shift needed in our relationships with world water forms—movementers.

Read the full article…