Water is the Elixir of Life

As we emerge from the atmospheric rivers, torrential rains, flooding, mudslides and all the rest, I affirm that the Universe provides a safe, welcoming love nest, always filling our souls with the scent of seemingly over-abundant flowers, bringing us their iridescent beauty. Animals and insects sing and play as we breathe it all in, singing along and feeling the love. The miracle of life dances our beings as new life manifests in this new world. Mother Earth undulates, sated yet curious and willing to allow and nurture all life as it appears. In each magical moment, without warning, life begins anew; ready and willing microscopic cells conjoin with one another, connected only by one tiny droplet of water. If this new life survives, it will grow and realize its purpose. It could become an Oak tree, a cotton plant, a blueberry bush or even a clover plant.

Recently, this process played out in my garden. The morning glories live in flowerpots on a low patio wall in the back. During the Covid lockdown a few years ago, I consciously cultivated them, counting the individual flowers each day, realizing the amount of visible blossoms varies from day to day. This year, it rained so much, that my focus turned to other things until one day, I listened when the flowers told me that something was amiss; in fact it looked like something was preventing them from coming out. It was already the end of April; usually they appeared by then, but they weren’t coming out like they had in the past and the plants didn’t look healthy. I decided to dig up a couple of new wild morning glories from the yard and transplant them into the pots.

When I made a hole in the dirt to transplant the first one, I met a lot of resistance from some strong vine-like strands and realized that at the top of these strands were clover leaves. The strands down below were effectively strangling the morning glories before they could flower. At this moment I was grateful for this new awareness that would begin a new life for the morning glories. I knew that I simply needed to pull the clover out of the pots so that the morning glories could thrive.

After only a few days, the plants responded, now bearing beautiful flowers. I began to think of the clover as a weed, an undesirable, so to speak. But then, I remembered how much I loved playing in the clover as a child. Nothing could beat the excitement of finding a four-leaved clover. Clover can’t be a weed. When I was a kid, it always got along with the grass and the wildflowers, creating wonderful meadows for fun times with friends. In the beginning, did just one clover plant emerge through the ground, still damp from the spring rains? Did it, like many plants, then spread underground through its root system and then surface as seemingly individual clover plants? Other plant species manifest in this way - cypress, black gum trees - they show up as one tree, but in time they multiply into many, ever connected to that initial Mother Tree.

Later, as I walked through the front yard, filled with grass, clover and bees feasting on the clover flowers, I breathed in the combined fragrances of sage, rosemary and lavender. Yes, my yard now reminded me of the meadows in which I played as a child, full of grass, clover and bees. Where did all this clover come from? I didn’t plant it. Unlike my morning glory pots, the clover in the yard is supporting the bees who are in turn creating honey and pollinating - manifesting more life. They love to drink the clover flower nectar. Perhaps the bees summon the clover by bringing the new microscopic life forms that attach to the bee, eventually growing into a clover. The intelligence of this plant knows that the bees want those flowers and does what it must to create this sustenance by branching into multiple clover plants as described above.

In contrast, when I removed the clover from the potted morning glories, they responded in gratitude, producing flowers as they had done before the clover “invasion”. Perhaps it is not mine to know why or how; as a human taking care of my precious garden inhabitants, I simply observe and tweak. I notice and appreciate the beauty and balance in the whole thing. I feel the consciousness of the plants and the interconnectedness of all the different life forms. I welcome the rain, bringing and moving the water element to and fro in an eternal wondrous cycle, ever creating lives and connecting them all. Thank you water for being the elixir of life, assuring our existence on our beloved planet Earth.