sparkling

i don't know if it was the fact that the garden had just been watered with a hose and the early morning sun was shining on it, or that the gardener is a very special woman and her presence brings a sparkle to whatever she touches, or maybe it was just an auspicious day for sparkling gardens! everything was in a glow and just sparkling as if God had just created it this minute....and i guess he actually did! the gardener is a very kind, quiet, nice middle aged woman. she lives next door to the guesthouse and comes for 2 hours every morning to sweep the grass, pathways, weed, and prune. and the garden really does sparkle. the village has a natural spring of water so it flows abundantly here. it makes all the difference! no water scarcity consciousness.

it may be because i am a "water person"...and i just need to hear, smell, see, feel water and i am at peace. it feeds something deep within me. later i walked along the sea, and the sparkling was there too! and a nice cool breeze that comes from the sea from dawn to dusk and makes it all perfect. when i walked through the forest afterwards, it too was sparkling! and even now, as i sit in this garden, even though nothing is sparkling, because it is the afternoon light, everything feels very three dimensional, as if it is a person that i can speak with. this may be a combination of the good vibes from the gardener every day and also my appreciation of it.

but really, when i see her watering in abundance with a hose i begin to understand the power water has. why the balinese call it the great purifier...it really does heal and purify everything! when i was washing my clothes in the bucket, i realized what a miracle it is that there is such a thing as water, that clothes that were dirty and smelly, are plunged in water and scrubbed and are suddenly clean. and when i am hot and sweaty, i just go into a cold shower and come out refreshed and cool, and when i want to cook a meal, i just put water with some vegetables, and suddenly i have a delicious nourishing meal, and when i am thirsty, i just drink it, and am restored. and here they sprinkle it on the earth and cement pathways and streets everyday at sunset before they sweep, it is the cleansing and purifying of everything after a day of life...like giving our surroundings a shower before nighttime!

i have such a drought mentality, after having lived in israel for 35 years, that every time i see a hose left on a sidewalk with water pouring out i shudder and want to find the person who put it there and tell him the water is being wasted... but i realize that for them it is not waste...it is part of their connection with the earth and life. the kids can have the hose running for hours while they play in the puddles and make mud pies... and water the ground, that doesn't have anything growing on it, just to clean it too....before sweeping,..and soon they will have 4 months of monsoon too!

water....sparkling water....