Wounded Place:

Blue Hole, for wounded waters of the Aquifer and Gulf of Mexico

Act of Beauty: 

20 people gathered at the Blue Hole, a spring considered sacred by native and other people, where water normally flows from the earth to form the source of the San Antonio River, which flows to the Gulf of Mexico. Last year, people gathered at this same place and floated acts of beauty down the waters toward the Gulf of Mexico, as the oil spill there was ongoing. This year, the spring is bone dry, and people’s focus was on the aquifer, source of the area’s water, threatened by over-pumping, overdevelopment, and pollution. 

Poems and heartfelt words were shared. The leader of a local alternative spiritual congregation offered two songs and brought colorful streamer-like prayer flags which people waved to create the image of flowing water. Several participants were elderly nuns who live in a retirement facility nearby, who spoke of their many decades long relationship with the waters that flowed from this spring. 

Helen Ballew, Executive Director of the Headwaters Coalition (which oversees the caretaking of the Blue Hole and surrounding lands) brought vials of water gathered from when the waters of the Blue Hole flowed. These were offered to participants, who then poured the water into the dry spring, taking the vials home to keep, top off, until the spring flows again and they could return to refill the vial from its waters. As part of her Act of Beauty, Helen also descended into the dry-spring to remove several cans and bottles that had been discarded there.