Reflection
The element of water is often associated with the direction of the west and the season of autumn. The west is the place of the setting sun, the ending of the day, and the transition into a time of darkness. Autumn is a season of letting go of what no longer serves us in preparation for the fallow time of winter. It is a time to recognize our own limitations and frailty. Dusk is a threshold time, time of transitions. The riding and falling of the tides connects us to the movement and transition space of evening… Water is malleable appearing in different forms…Water is also a dominant symbol in religious practice.
From Water, Wind, Earth and Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements.
Prayer
May what I do flow from me like a river,
No forcing and no holding back.
Ranier Marie Rilke
Action
Take a time of quiet reflection. Think of the waters of the earth and their rising and falling. Make the connections
Suggested Reading
As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God,
Psalm 42:1
Everyone who thirsts come to the waters.
Isaiah 55:1a
My soul thirsts for you, O God.
Psalm 63:1
When we go down to the low tide line, we enter a world that is as old as the earth itself- the primary meeting place of the elements earth and water- a place of compromise and conflict and eternal change.
Rachel Carson
The ocean disentangles the netted mind. Everything loosens and comes back to itself. The false divisions are relieved, released and healed.
John O’Donohue
A setting sun still whispers a promise for tomorrow.
Jeb Dickerson
Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.
Rabindranath Tagore
A lake carries you into recesses of feeling otherwise impenetrable.
William Wordsworth
Our bodies are molded rivers.
Novalis
The voice of the sea speaks to the soul;
Kate Chopin