Clean water is a gift, a treasure, and maybe it is the ultimate gift.
I love water. I drink a lot of it. When I write, my little dogs are usually close by up on the furniture or in my lap, and sometimes they ask for water. They have a way of panting that’s like a whistle, with a smile in their eyes, with anticipation. I bring them the clean bowl of water that’s by my feet and watch them drink. Watching the animals who live with me drink clean water has always made me happy – from cockatiels and parrots to little dogs. This never fails.
I realize lately that when I tell a story, about half way through my friends faces change, twist, and I remember – oh, right. You’r eating, I’m sorry. So as a warning, while clean water is pure, even holy, what follows is not.
The gift of clean water, it means a lot. The last time I saw my father he was in a hospital bed, on opiates for pain, losing his bones to metastasis that eats right through bone quickly in the end stages of metastatic cancer. I visited him with my two young daughters. He couldn’t sit up but was propped up on a pillow, and asked the girls to please pass him his cup of clean water. He drank it through a straw and smiled, then passed it back, twice so that each of them had a turn.
“There. Now you can tell people that you gave your grandpa a drink before he died, if they ask about me,” he said. And he laughed. And we cried, but he was like that.
Clean water. The ultimate gift. Let’s be sure there’s some clean water around when the next person who needs some asks. It’s such a wonderful thing to be able to give.
Sharing a hip-hop video from Treasure the Karoo Action Group, TKAG, in South Africa, where the movement to protect clean water sources is moving.
Do you treasure clean water? Do you have it, or have to buy it now?
Please leave a comment to share views. I look forward to hearing from you.
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J.J.Brown Author 
Thank you for sharing that rap video. The visuals are very affecting even though I don’t understand most of the words, it clearly explains what fracking is with the imagery. Water is so vital I cannot believe anyone would be ignorant of the threat against our water here in NYC. An important post here.
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Great post, Jennifer. Water is such an important resource that many of us waste and take for granted.
We are fortunate in that we have our own artesian well. We have terrific water. It is free and it is abundant. It may not always be that way, but right now, it is thee for us to cherish and freely enjoy.
I learned to appreciate water more once I began my fitness program at Curves in 2003. We were taught that we had to drink more water and so I upped my intake. It now comes naturally to me and I really enjoy it.
May you always have access to clean, fresh water, and may you and your girls always treasure those last moments with your father.
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It’s a heavy responsibility that we have shirked for too long thinking it is not an issue. Our birthright is taken for granted as universal truth.
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