Still Water Meditation

Place a drop of water in the palm of your hand.

The drop that you hold in your hand Is part of the water which was the cradle of all life On this planet Aeons ago The first rain that splashed down on the hot earth To form the first sea Each drop, in sunlight Has risen from the sea in countless ages And fallen from the earth again As rain

The drop that you hold in your hand Has been a prism forming myriad rainbows Has travelled underground streams Bubbling through dark caverns The Architect of cathedral caves Formed valleys And split granite

The drop that you hold in your hand Has flowed down broad rivers Has risen on the sap of trees Has been the sweat of slaves And the tears of children It has become the foam topped waves And deep unfathomable depths Of vast lakes And seas

The drop that you hold in your hand Has been part of the great flood It has been a dewdrop on a blade of grass A drop that has been pounded Through the hearts of whales in blood And lain in an eagle’s egg It has travelled in the fluid of a poet’s brain And dripped from the wounds of the dying

The drop that you hold in your hand Has been trapped in the snows of the arctic Reflected the sun in a desert oasis And refreshed the weary

This drop Unimaginably old Yet fresh and new Is evaporating slowly from your hand To mingle with the air that you breathe, perhaps Or drift in a sun-topped cloud A thousand feet above the earth Imagine its journey from your hand Where will it go You can direct its journey As it evaporates Send your consciousness with it It is the water of life It is still water