Waiting with Water, wisdom number two! Remember Stimulus and Response? And the Pause between the two? This is what is amazing. The Pause that comes from Leading with Breathing, actually brings us Fluidity in the space between Stimulus and Response. Why? Because in that moment of Pause that brings Fluidity as we are Waiting with Water, we are no longer task-opinion-or-judgement-focused! For when we are task focused, we are not focused on breath. But with Breaths Fluidity between Stimulus and Response, is Sabbath. Rest. Pause. Enlightenment. The divine.

And I would add: Play! Play that is genuine, child-like, and not task focused. How hard it is to do if we have been taught to work harder, faster, longer. Hard at times to shift from Task to take a moment and pause! Waiting with water. 

And for this we become stronger, more insightful, and over time, wiser. Experts know that learning is enhanced when you periodically break and do something fun or unusual. Break the learning up, into moments divine.

Stimulus-Pause-Response. And so, what we have developed is: Stimulus/Task Focused-Pause/Sabbath/Rest/Play-Measured Response. And it is a Measured Response because we Pause, energize, rest, are more fluid (plasticity as I call it)! We have honored Sabbath, rest, pause, so that our response is not habitual and without thinking or intuiting. It is measured with the characteristics of beathing and waiting!

Now back to water as felt by the body!

Perhaps you can recall the wonderful feeling of waiting with water: in the Jacuzzi, an evening bath, or in a lazy river. Soaking. Going nowhere in particular. How calming and healing it can be.

Then back to the “real world,” and we are drowning in business, hustle, and bustle. And the bodily aches and pains return quickly. And we forget to Wait with Water throughout our day.

The problem is not that we are not around water. Water is everywhere we are. It makes up 70 to 95% of most organisms. It is powerful, relentless, and predictable. 

So, you cannot afford to put a Jacuzzi in your office, at the day care, or in the filling station where you gas up your auto. Remember, water is everywhere in you.

We have forgotten we are water, bodies of water, just as we had forgotten there is a space between stimulus and response.

And so, the vast majority of our body is water. Just as the oceans are the largest land mass on the planet, water is the largest cellular mass in our bodies. Just as breathing is the most constant and vast mechanism of our body! 

Now… my twelve- pound, 3-year-old Chihuahua Mr. Teco is sitting next to me right now. His brother’s Mr. Peanut and Mr. Reecie are deceased at this time, as is their sister Ms. Sadie. But Mr. Teco is fully alive and there he is staring at me again. Staring right at me! And I can hear his thinking: “But some of us have more mass than others!” 

Ha Ha Ha. Mr. Chihuahua-ha-ha-ha. When he clowns around, he makes some biting funny comments. He always goes for the juggler. I never should have let him call me Dad.

So now I have put him outside, where he can practice the Prayer of Waiting for Water (which is a different prayer than the one I have been referring to!). How many of us do this with our beloved four-leggeds through the day? While doing this let’s practice our own Prayer of Water Waiting. The time it takes is just a drop in the bucket!

So here we are. What a privilege. Bodies of water. So how do we do the Prayer of Waiting with Water during the day or night?

Bathing the Body. The first bathing of the day: a container of pure water to drink and baptize sleep from the body and begin mindfully bathing in the light of the New Day. 

The Prayer of Waiting with Water. 

Remember that water seeks its own level. Adding a glass of water does not change and make one side of my body lower and one higher! It seeks its own level. Equity and equilibrium reside here.

It is also important to know that water also seeks us! And as we are Waiting with Water, what we ingest in terms of pure water will not disturb our equilibrium. We will be in balance for the day. For the water within us seeks balance as well. And we function well when hydrated and in balance.

The mission of water is to find equality. Let’s give this a special notice. This takes a moment. Wait for it. Be patient. Welcome it as you would welcome a most esteemed teacher or friend. Water will always seek equilibrium, equality, and equanimity.

Equanimity is to water as it is known in psychology: Equanimity is a quality of emotional stability and composure, particularly in times of high stress. The word equanimity is often associated with spiritual and religious practices as well. 

What would our world be like if we were compliant with water? Always seeking and finding equilibrium, equality, and equanimity. Do you think that as water, when we do NOT do what we are made to do, this could be one reason we develop disease and disorders? That our noncompliance with our own nature contaminates and or erodes our well-being?

Asking so many questions can drive me crazy. Speaking of driving one crazy, did you see the movie Driving Miss Daisy?

In the movie Driving Miss Daisy, a white aristocratic woman, and her African American “chauffeur” (played by Morgan Freeman) are driving out in the country when he has to “give water.” So, he stops at the side of the road to relieve himself (and it is nighttime).

The metaphor here is clear: Both people are human. Both have the same bodily makeup and needs. Water is the equality between them both. Insanity is that society has taught they are different, one being better than the other, thereby exiling love.

Try the Prayer of Waiting with Water. Be mindful, we are breathing in ancient waters that have been around since creation!

This precious experience can remind us of the baptism of an infant or adult; of the waters of a river, we loved in childhood; the rains on the horizon; tears; and before all of this, when our mother’s water broke, and we fell from the sky. The Prayer of Waiting with Water. The kiss of Creation between our Inhale and Exhale. 

Let me close this aspect of the Prayer of Waiting with Water with this: Dr. Louis Frank, who has taught physics at the University of Iowa, USA, “has documented the release of enormous amounts of water vapor from comets that enter the Earth’s atmosphere on a regular basis. According to his research, millions of small comets impact our atmosphere each year, showering the earth (and us) with a continual supply of cosmic water vapor.” (From: Dancing with Water by MJ Pangman and Melanie Evans.

If a comet has been patient enough for hundreds of years to reach us and shower us with water vapor, can we not take time every day to patiently pray the Prayer of Waiting with Water? Knowing and trusting that more is to come? 

Remember The Elders of Waitaha? They did not put great store in chance, and steadfastly believed in helping with the Universal plan and pattern. They did this to such an extent that all the individuals within the Waitaha Nation were as important in the total scheme of things as were the sun, the moon, and the stars. (And comets?!).

Dare to believe this is the real world. Where there is a pattern, current, and a weaving that occurs. Practice this daily: Leading with Breathing. In the Pause, Pray the Breath of Life 

Divine, remembering how you are a part of the whole. Practice the Prayer of Waiting with Water. Comets, Glaciers, rivers, tears, all have so much to teach us. We are all part of the weaving of water and breath. One day we shall be a part of the loom itself. 

We are Familia.

Let’s continue. What is the Third of the Four Wisdom’s gifted by the Untying of the Sacred Bundle.?