Dear LPG reader, 

When you focus on the word ‘water’, what initial picture does your mind’s eye conjure up?   Do you first see the stuff from the kitchen or bathroom tap when you give the spindle one clockwise revolution, or have you been lucky enough to have seen the most expansive falling flow of it that our planet has to offer? Perhaps a teardrop comes to mind, or pictures of all the countries where it is not at the other end of a tap and needs to be carried to the homes that need it so badly.

I cannot tell you what I saw first, either, but I felt the need to express my lateral thinking using the power of the rhyming word. Here is what came to mind…    

Water, water

Water, water, Rivers of water, Streams of water flowing forever, Springs and lakes, Brooks, Sea and Ocean, Beautiful fountains, clear and calm, fresh and still.

Water to drink, to shower, to swim in, water to soak and to bathe and to splatter about, water to give away, to purchase for cash, water to cook, to clean, to water the garden, to prevent the crops from dying of thirst.

Springs of water fill the ocean and carry the ships to every nation all around the globe! Water that comes pouring from the clouds as rain drops upon parched ground.

Water is used to make hot and cold beverages, like coffee, hot chocolates, and herbal teas; delicious vegetable soups nourish our weary bodies after a busy day.

When I was just a little girl in plaits, I regularly carried fresh water upon my head, in buckets and bottles and on donkeys, to be poured into empty drums. Then, it took a lot of work to move about with water splashing here, there and everywhere!

In the season of drought, when the land is parched with the summer heat, and every creature is seeking shelter from the blazing sun, water is needed to give to the hens and the cattle languishing out in the open fields all day.

Water is required to fill up the empty concrete tanks left empty for weeks or even months! God sends water as showers of blessings in answer to the prayers of the people who must live and labour in a dry and thirsty land.

Water is fresh and cool, clear and still, so refreshing, and it is always a blessing whenever it begins to rain.

Whenever and wherever it rains!

© 2011 Beverly Gooden‑Wilson