Water water everywhere...

This is a bit more on the hike on Mount Toby, but also about the spring on the hillside at the farm in Ashfield.

As we were going up Mt. Toby, I paused to give greeting to the stream there, and then asked if perhaps it knew the spring on the hillside. The mountains are some miles away from one another, but not so far in terms of water and land on a slightly more global scale. I pictured all I know of the lady of the spring, the waterfall, the land it flows through and over, and asked this stream if she knew my cousin. The reply was somewhat distant -- we weren't near the source -- but she allowed as they were acquainted. I asked if I should convey greetings of any sort, if only of our having met, and she said that yes, she thought I should give greeting to my sister. We parted then as it was time each of us went on our ways, but it was a very positive meeting and I think that helped my energy stay high for the long hike up the mountain.

It occurs to me that some folks might think it odd to refer to a spring, stream, fall, body of water as being kin. Yet it seemed completely natural to me at the time to refer to the Ashfield lady of the spring as my cousin. And it was special indeed to have that amended to sister. I am honored indeed.

We are all created out of the same beginning stuffs though, so kinship should not seem that strange, if one gives it some thought. I for one grew up with a number of aunts and uncles who were not blood-kin, but friends of my parents. And commonly Gaia is also called Mother Earth, so it seems only natural that one might find family elsewhere besides the usual human societal places.