Water Service

Today was the UU Water Service.  Not having grown up in a Unitarian congregation, I wasn't familiar with a water service so I didn't know exactly what to expect.  


What I experienced, exceeded any expectations I did have.


It's a beautiful service of unity where all members of the congregation bring water (or virtual water) from places they have traveled in the previous year.  This water is poured together in a communal bowl with water from the previous years' service as each shares a brief story of where the water came from & the importance of that water in their lives.


The service also ties in four of the directions with their meaning:


North: Healing, Quietude, Gestation
South:  Celebration, Community, Action
East:  Beginnings, Newness, Awakening
West: Endings, Fruition, Completion


Each member comes up based on the direction from which their water came or from which the meaning of that direction holds the most relevance.


I knew instantly that my "water" came from the East.  Janan & I traveled from the waters of the Great Lakes to the desert just a year ago to create a new beginning in our lives.  As I walked to the front, Janan joined me without my even asking (she was sitting in the back with her friends and I was in the front).  As we poured in our water together she was beaming.  


It helped to reaffirm my decision for this new beginning.  Sometimes all the challenges and difficulties of starting over make me doubt my decision.  But my heart led me here and I know this is where we are meant to be at this point in our lives.  


So, as I think about all that happened today I choose another direction honored by the Native Americans - inward.  Looking inward, listening again to my heart and reaffirming the path I've chosen,  I know it is the right one.