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Bridging the Water Gap:
A Conference affirming water's value in our life and world
An interview by Tim Miejan
Water. Two light atoms, hydrogen, combined with one relatively heavy atom, oxygen.
Babies are composed of 78 percent water and adults are between 55 to 60 percent water.
A 150-pound man has about 10 gallons of water in his body: six to seven gallons in
the cells, two gallons in the space between the cells and about one gallon in the
bloodstream. Bones are composed of 20 percent water. A tree is 75 percent water.
The human brain is 75 percent water. The earth's surface is 70 percent water. Only
3 percent of all the water on earth is freshwater, and only 1 percent of that is
available for human consumption. It takes 20,000 gallons of water to produce one
bushel of wheat. Only 15% of the world's population has access to water on tap.
We are all dependent upon water. We all are water.
"Bridging the Water Gap," an international conference co-sponsored by AquaEssence
Resource and A Single Drop, will take place April 15-17 at Eisenhower Community Center
in Hopkins, Minn., to provide a forum to expand public awareness about the state
of water on our planet and give scientific, spiritual and educational leaders an
opportunity to develop ideas that expand current water practices, policies and technologies
and help provide workable global solutions for our rapidly declining freshwater resources.
There also will be events for children, for families and for communities. Buddhist
monks will be creating a sand mandala. A choir, and all those in attendance, will
be invited to sing "We Rise," humanity's new anthem for rebirth, a song
written by Gemma Bulos in response to the tragedy of 9/11.
The event synchronistically mirrors the United Nations General Assembly's recent
adoption of a resolution proclaiming 2005 to 2015 as the International Decade for
Action -- Water for Life. Its goals include halving by 2015 the proportion of people
who are unable to reach or afford safe drinking water and who do not have access
to basic sanitation, and ensuring the participation of women in water-related development
efforts.
Tickets are available at toll-free 1 (866) 468-3401 or go online at www.ticketweb.com
The four women responsible for creating "Bridging the Water Gap" -- Diane
Jankford, Sharon Mullen and Terri Peterson of AquaEssence Resource, and Gemma Bulos
of A Single Drop -- gathered in Burnsville, Minn., one recent morning to share the
genesis and dreams surrounding this event.
How did the idea become birthed? Who had the idea?
Sharon Mullen: We all had the idea.
At the same time?
Sharon Mullen: Seriously. We all had it and then we came together and it was
the spark that led to this whole unfolding. Somebody suggested that I call Gemma,
and she was building this million voice choir and she was attending water conferences....
When Gemma came into the picture, this project had a life of its own. This is what
we were to do: be the bridge.
Diane Jankford: Our mission was to bring the different groups together over
a common issue. We look at water as the most basic elemental need of any lifeform.
It seemed logical to center the discussion around the point that everyone needs fair
equity to water, and it seemed pivotal to have a discussion with different groups
that might have some commonality, but wouldn't necessarily talk to each other otherwise.
So our goal was to bring governmental agencies, scientific agencies, educational
institutions and spiritual communities together around a common subject: water.
Gemma Bulos: Put a drop of water in water, and you cannot retrieve that same
drop of water exactly the same way that you put it in there, because it will take
on the energy of the whole. Metaphorically, we are forming an ocean, an ocean of
common intention, common souls with a common intention, and trying to find a rhythm
again so that we can start making waves that are not destructive, but waves that
are creative.
On a practical level, we're putting on a conference that I would like to go to. I
would like to go to a conference that talks about issues, but also gives solutions.
But before we actually can start talking about issues, we have to return to a place
of reverence. Without reverence, all of our work is either based in guilt or activism,
and not based on consciousness. This conference is that. It is to inspire and reinvigorate
reverence once again to this vital resource that connects us all, that equalizes
us in a way that no other element equalizes us. Every single living being on this
planet needs water just as much as the next, so it is the master equalizer. To begin
a conversation from there is how we can begin the reverence again.
Diane Jankford: We would like to give groups and individuals permission to
have the discussion to create that end result. We are just the messenger. What is
important is bringing different individuals together and letting them have their
say.
Sharon Mullen: And we want it to be a celebration, fun, motivating, for people
to leave and know that one person can make a difference and it starts with you, and
that it doesn't have to be the doom and gloom.
Diane Jankford: There's no time for pointing fingers. Everyone can make an
impact -- and you get to decide what that impact is.
It's a whole idea of looking at problems as opportunities.
Diane Jankford: Thank you, that's perfect.
How do you change a public that takes water for granted to think differently about
water?
Gemma Bulos: The goal is to just disseminate the information, to give the public
access to the research that people have done on water issues, to be able to share
that information and then give people the opportunity to use it as they will. I wouldn't
be so arrogant as to think that I could actually possibly change somebody. All I
can do is share the experience that I've had, share the information that I have been
able to gain through my research and hopefully have it be inspiring.
Terri Peterson: There will be so many different ways to look at water at this
conference, and everybody will gravitate to different areas. If they want to just
come for the fun, they'll do the fun things. If they want to come for the education,
they'll do the educational things. If they want to come for the activism, that will
be there. If somebody's ready to look at something in a different way, they'll find
that there.
Our job is just to raise awareness of the issues that are out there and let people
look at what they can take from it, and little by little they can take in what they
need to to make a difference in their life. With this conference, we want to let
people know that you can do something yourself. You don't have to have great committees
or big projects. The things that you do in your everyday life can make a difference.
Diane Jankford: People have busy lives and they think in their heads, "Oh,
I'm too busy for this," or "I can't change because I already have this
habit going." At the conference, people will be exposed to thought processes
outside of their own perspective. That's the bridging part. The umbrella will include
an individual's thought process and some more.
Gemma Bulos: What we're trying to do is just have people see water in a different
way. That's all it is. See it in a way that is simply not about nourishment, or cleanliness,
or whatever. See it as something that will help you physically, something that will
help you mentally, something that will help you spiritually. See water as so much
more than just what you see it as now.
Diane Jankford: And it's a common denominator in celebration. If we can have
fun, we can possibly inspire someone to look at a substance that they might take
for granted differently. You turn on the faucet and it's always there, but perhaps
after the conference when you turn on the faucet, you'll have a greater reverence
for this fluid that is coming out of the tap. And it will be a constant reminder,
because we use water every day.
Gemma Bulos: And I think it goes beyond just seeing water in a different way.
It's actually having a relationship with water. If we would want to walk away from
the conference with anything, I think we'd like to be able to say that we encouraged
a different relationship to water. Instead of just being an observer, you now have
this cohesive and interdependent relationship.
A remembrance of what your relationship is with water.
Sharon Mullen: Right.
Because we've forgotten.
Gemma Bulos: Absolutely. It's a matter of finding where that disconnection happened
and encourage that remembrance.
We're talking about remembering what water really is. What does water mean to
each of you?
Terri Peterson: Water is life. Everything -- our planet, our bodies -- is birthed
from water. If we can find that connection again, we can have answers.
Sharon Mullen: For myself, it was realizing that I am a water being. I've
worked for several, several years on growth and concentrating on different aspects
of my physical body as holding memories, certain organs. When I was able to shift
my perspective, recognizing I have some diseased water within me and that the water
was holding the memories and giving it new memories, it was amazing how quickly emotions
and habits that were so ingrained in me since childhood just went away. They dissipated
and they flowed away.
I've been working on shame, going to rebirthing sessions, attending child workshops,
anything that would be effective for that moment in time. But I found that I was
able to affect the most change when I realized that I was a water being. I very consciously
put this into my body. Before, I was lucky if you could force me to drink water.
I associated water with lack. When I was growing up, my parents would have us drink
water. My friends used to get Kool-Aid, with their cup of sugar and green powder.
My mom would say, "Well, we really can't afford sugar. You just get some water."
And as I looked at what my association with water was, I had a deep-seated fear.
My father drowned. I nearly drowned as a child. I watched him drown. When I really
looked at my relationship with water, that's where the true empowerment came from.
I realized that the body itself is a storehouse of all the information and every
emotion that we've ever had -- even when I had healed on an emotional level all my
anger towards God, anger towards my father for drowning, my anger towards my mother
for letting me nearly drown.
My current family and I took out the boat to the middle of a lake, and my husband
and my daughter said, "OK, it's time for you to get in the water. You can do
this, right?"
And I was so calm. There was a circle of clouds over me, and I was so empowered.
They all jumped into the water. I was still calm. I'm halfway down the ladder. All
of a sudden, thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump, and I'm
like wondering where the noise is coming from. I look and I am just shaking and the
ladder's banging up against the boat.
I thought, "I'm calm inside, but my body was panicking because of its relationship
to the water." And as soon as I recognized that it was the water in me reacting
to the water in the lake, I stopped shaking like that.
My biggest empowerment, my biggest shift, was acknowledging that the water is holding
the information. When I started to look at my relationship to water, everything that
was holding me back -- my victim consciousness, my guilt, all of that -- was able
to heal. So I want everybody to know that you're bodies of water. We are all water
beings.
Diane Jankford: My relationship is different. I always thought water was play
and fun and celebration. I always say my best job was being a lifeguard.
I have always seen water as an external thing. All of a sudden, one day when I realized
that we're 50, 60 percent water inside, that clicked on a different switch inside
of me.
My husband is a chiropractor, so energy is always something that we talk about. We
entered the world of energy healing, and then I began working with Terri and Sharon.
Our work led us to water, and about it being inside us, and we learned about repatterning
and reprogramming and how there has to be a carrier for that energy. I believe water
can be the quickest carrier of energy. There are electric currents and there's wind
and there's sound -- and there's water as another carrier.
Gemma Bulos: I've had an interesting history and relationship with water.
In all the ancient texts and belief systems, water has always been the creator and
the destroyer. When I was 20, I actually fell out of a parasail in Mexico, from 150
feet up in the air. I landed in the water in a sitting position, broke my tailbone
and practically everything else. I had a life jacket on, but I floated face down
in the water. It was the water that literally broke my fall and broke me.
It also saved me, because for some reason I was floating in it. I don't even know
how long I was there. I saw all the lights and the tunnel. I did the whole crossing
over bit.
Years ago, I went to India on two different occasions and got very serious water-related
diseases -- and both times I felt like I was nearly dead. It served as a teacher
more than anything else, because there were so many messages that I was getting about
water.
Water wants to be pure. It wants to be healthy. As human beings, our bodies are constantly
trying to purify, to function so we are in optimum health. It's the water that is
maintaining that and encouraging that and even manifesting that. Water always chooses
the path of least resistance. Whenever it hits a rock, it purifies even more. So
in our lives, when we hit obstacles, it's just another opportunity to purify.
Water flows and reflects. We can look at the state of water and see the state of
ourselves. There are so many lessons that we can glean from in this vital resource.
The most important thing for me is that water is life. It absolutely is. I see it
as the life giver, the life taker, the creator, the destroyer. It's my teacher.
Diane Jankford: I have a constant reminder in my life, I realize. We live
in the country and we have an old well system. We physically have to turn our pump
on. We don't have an automatic pump like everyone else in this new century. So if
we don't turn on the pump, we run out of water. I've been living like that for 14
years. I have found that this process has been my constant reminder not to take water
for granted. When I turn on the tap, if I flush the toilet or if I do the laundry
or if I do the dishes, I need to have a relationship with water. I have to think,
"OK, where I am I with water?" Every day. It's really a good thing, because
I'm constantly truly aware of where I am with it.
Gemma Bulos: I want to share one more little story, because I actually got
to that awareness of how it affects me in every part of my life. I was in Hawaii
and there's this beach very close to where I was staying called Kehena, which literally
translates to "hell." It's one of the newest area on earth, because it
is where a volcano has created more land. There are a lot of very sharp rocks that
get shifted back and forth on the beach as the tides shift. You cannot decide when
you are going in that water. You literally have to wait and listen, and ask, "May
I come in?"
There are amazing swimmers, natives of the island, who have died because they have
not had that kind of respect when they've walked into that water. You literally have
to pray before you go in and ask permission, and pray on your way out, because otherwise
you're going to get caught up in these rocks. It's much more powerful than we will
ever even imagine, just as I believe that we are all individually as single drops
more powerful than we could ever imagine.
For more information on "Bridging the Water Gap," visit www.AquaEssenceResource.org
Tim Miejan is editor of Edge Life magazine. Contact him at (651) 578-8969, toll-free
1 (888) 776-5687 or e-mail editor@edgelife.net
Copyright © 2005 Tim Miejan, all rights reserved. |
March 2005 |
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