“But the blessed ones grow strong as living trees,
their roots sink deep and hidden beside the flowing 
streams which come from you.” 
– Psalm 1:3a, Ancient Songs Sung Anew (Bauman)

I loved biology in school. I fulfilled my science requirement taking Biology each year of High School. The teacher, who had a dark room set up in the back closet, also inspired my love of photography. I once knew how to develop my own pictures.

And I once knew how a tree transported water from its root to its crown, many vertical feet. I knew perfectly well as I received 10/10 for demonstrating capillary action with a petri dish of water and a thin, hollow glass tube. There is more to it than capillary action but I have never lost the awe of how trees lift water.

You might want to sit by a tree, or even with this image, and imagine the water gathered by the roots, rising through thin, hollow tubes transported through the branches and into every leaf. Imagine the pull and the pressure that moves water upward. It’s elegant.

And in this active imagining perhaps you will become aware of the draw of your own breath and how that breath pulls us into the nourishment of the present moment.

Perhaps you will wonder about the goodness of roots, deep and hidden, travelling ancient paths in search of flowing streams. Always given, always found.

Perhaps you will feel the draw and continuous flow of living waters in the cells of your body.

Perhaps today you will raise thanks for the elegance flowing through you. What name do you give the living water nurturing your Soul?