Last week I sat on large boulders on the beach at Grand Marais having my morning coffee. If one is an early riser as I am, you learn how to make an escape without waking your fellow travelers. Tiptoeing out the door after silently making the coffee, I would make my way down the hill toward Lake Superior. I would sit and simply stare at the breathtaking scene before me…….colorful fishing boats out on the glassy water, gulls flying in lace-like patterns in the air, hoping for an easy breakfast. Besides the fishermen,only a few other people were awake walking dogs held captive by the night. One or two dogless people….also early risen escapees…..ran or walked along the shore. The only sound that graced the morning was the faint hum of the boat motors and the incessant call of the gulls.

At one point my eyes moved from the shining surface of the water to meet the gaze of a woman walking leisurely by: "It is so calming, isn’t it? So calming…." In monosyllables, I agreed. Nothing more was necessary. We both returned our vision to the mirror of water that reflected the sky and the dome of blue it created. So calming……………..

What is it about water that attracts us? Is it the deep realization that we once swam in the womb waters of our mothers? Or,like the sea creatures from which we evolved, we somehow know that we all once swam in the Womb of God? And the calmness that can come over us, does it stem from the wisdom that water is at the center of all the deepest myths that live in our memory…..all the many Creation stories from which the Holy One stills the chaotic, frightful waters and brings forth abundant life?

I don’t know the answer to these big questions. All I know is that when I sit, when I allow myself to meditate upon the ebb and flow of  the waters of lake or ocean, river or stream, something causes my heart to slow to a regular, healthy rhythm,and the pressure of the blood coursing through my veins becomes even. "It’s so calming, isn’t it?" Yes, yes it is very, very good.

"For the morning light and its irresistible dawning, for your untameable utterances of life in boundless stretches of space and the strength of the waves of the sea, I give thanks to you, O God. Release in me the power of your Spirit that my soul may be free and my spirit strong. Release in me the freedom of your Spirit that I may be bridled by nothing but love, that I may bridled only by love." J. Philip Newell, Celtic Benediction:Morning and Night Prayer