Our Global Earth Exchange was held at Wekiwa Springs in Apopka, Florida.  We chose this site because Florida’s freshwater ecosystem is suffering increased wounding by the unnatural amount of nitrates and pollutants that enter the aquifer before the water reaches and flows from the spring head.  We began the exchange with sharing our memories of the Springs and how being there held a feeling of coming home for us, that this place, these waters, connected us to the larger web of life, the flora, fauna, earth and sky, all interconnected.

We discussed the topic of Baseline Creep, that small changes over time, have contributed to the Springs’ declining health, noting that the waters were crystal clear just a few years ago and that these changes are likely imperceptible to newcomers.  We also discussed potential future wounds that will result from what is occurring out of ordinary view;  large corporations making purchases for the ownership of water; corporations are buying the rights to own or gain access to pump first for profit.  

We returned from our Earth Exchange walk with stories of what we witnessed and experienced; we observed that even through the clumps of green algae, and the former sandy white bottom of the run now all green, there is still so much beauty.  We watched people of all generations immersing themselves in these waters and witnessing the playful, child spirit energy, rise in each of them. Wekiwa Spring shares, with all who swim here, its therapeutic medicine: physically, socially, emotionally and spiritually.  Something in us hungers for flowing waters….a sense of coming home, our first home.  The Journey to the Spring is also a Journey to Protect the Spring, to create awareness, advocate, educate and tend to these waters.  As one of the women in our group, who is a river keeper for the St Johns River, said, “Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting”  #Water is Life