Poison ivy vines wrap the trees thoroughly and the air seems to have more water than the stream. Late summer and time for a long cool drink of water. The stillness and the sounds are mesmerizing and I wish to sit in the sun and bake, though that is only plausible for a short time in this heat. I’ve just finished a summer journey to the north, a long road trip that was a long drink of water for my spirit.
I often long for water, both inside and out. And it appears I drink more water than most do at 102 lbs. A drink of water can put me back to sleep on a troubled night, strengthen me when I am flagging or simply wash me clean for the next adventure. Water is the medium of life, the substance upon which we live and die, and the reflection of our very life and soul. In ancient times, the symbol for water was the well, the place where water came up out of the ground. The well brought people together, marrying necessity with community. People looked to the well for nourishment of both the physical and the spiritual. Reflecting all equally, if not with an added light drawn from the sky it came from, pools of water provide wishes and washes, insights and awareness, cleansing and awakening us.
Today, I wonder, where is the well? Where is the source and resource of our lives together? In our individually-driven lives, where do we go to drink in both water and comfort from land and people? I go to the ocean, but it is not the well. Just to be by the ocean restores me, but it is not the well. To walk by the interface of land and sea, to step into the waters that touch other continents brings me back to what is truly important, but, still, it is not the well. While the wells of old were in some sense natural or found, we can and do create “wells”, places where we can source and re-source together, go to find nourishment and then enrich others with what we can contribute. This process of creating and sharing seems a most human of endeavors.
I decided to call my essential oil dispensing pharmacy The Well as a way to signify it as a resource, a place for all. I love my closet full of essential oils, so much packed into such a small space, a little well of its own. And to share the knowledge of how to use these power-packed plant juices, I created The Nectar of Plants course. To my delight, this course is a growing resource with over 100 participants studying and contributing to the website, housing a growing library of discussion, as well as active forums for exploration. And for those who wish to continue to gather there is EOS – An Essential Oils Study Group, a place to bring clinical cases and enjoy discussion and application of essential oil formulas. I hope that these “created” wells can serve to bring both information and inspiration to all who go there. You can also read a little primer about essential oils that I wrote for Acupuncture Today here.
In this practice we call life, there is a constant tension between the local and the global, the individual and the community, a tension born of the perfusion of need and desire that we each generate. Yet, that very tension itself, is the springboard of new life, like the surface of the water, at once soft yet strong, giving way to your foot and yet holding the surfboard. As I navigate that tension in myself, I have to sense, to feel the gentle yet strong stance, the knowing of my own heart beside the appreciation of this chaotic world. Water helps. As water surrounds me, I can feel my whole body, the places of tightness, soreness, and my very dimensions. As I drink water, I let it drop me into my heart while I feel the sweat on my skin, let it fill my body, while hearing the cicadas, the lawn mowers and the very subtle breeze of the season. Each day the exchange between the fire and the water creates a dance in my mind and body. The extremes of thought, of temperature and of movement meet the solid form that I have to wear each day, yielding strangely-matched desires to sit perfectly still and to jump with joy. Sourced inside and out.
If you have read this far, would you be willing to share?
Where is your well? Where do you go for nourishment? What is your source and your resource?
Perhaps we can join you there.
open space technology and the online forum – Open Space Technology List is a well. AS with here, I’m disinclined to publicly comment though I use what I gain by reading in my own life and pass it on readily to others.
Maybe another point is that as essential as water is, it’s also “no big deal.” this is what I strive for in all my work – simplicity. I do things but the result is not ‘about’ me. It comes from the other person but for whatever reason wasn’t accessible to them until some form of interface. With me, in this case. Am I, perhaps, assisting each person to bring out the well inside them? Or … am I thinking a bit too hard about this metaphor at the moment.
to be continued.
thanks for the space for this inner dialogue. Anything helpful to anyone in this?
Yes, thank you again for sharing the inner dialogue. Open Space technology certainly encourages “the well” to emerge in the workplace. Important I think for a workplace to have a well. Without it, sustainability is in question.
Thank you so much, Jane, for jumping in here with your thoughts! You are, indeed, in my experience, a deep well yourself and one who nourishes others through both your inviting others to join you at the well and diving into those wells you find around you. What a treasure!
Wow, I love hearing about this tree! I love the Douglas Fir essential oil. So good to be able to steep under its umbrella. Here in my backyard, it is a Black Walnut. Great to hear from you!