Positive thinking to promote protection and conservation. This explains part of our natural attraction to springs. This is something like gazing into a campfire; we are drawn to the fire as we are drawn to the spring. The connection is not physical but spiritual even though we may not be conscience of it.
Gathering around a spring with friends promotes a magical moment and makes it impossible for negative vibrations to emerge.
The above is a quote from one of our earlier posts about the Ichetucknee spring celebration Ichy Nippy Dip Day, held the first Saturday in January.
A radiant Bob Knight below reflects the genuine spirit of joy and exhilaration experienced by those who gathered to pay homage to the Springs during this January ritual.
The Gainesville Sun does not provide a link to this article.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
Lucinda Faulkner Merritt Guest columnist
Sunday September 4, 2022
If you have been reading The Sun’s ‘Messages from the Springs Heartland’ columns, you will know that many cultures throughout the world view water as sacred.
If you follow the news, you will know about the many statewide water problems that plague North Florida’s springs, South Florida’s Everglades and the many estuaries, wetlands, lakes and rivers that continue to suffer from pollution and depletion. You may also know about the Florida Right to Clean Water campaign, the effort to put a constitutional amendment on Florida’s 2024 ballot so voters can decide if our state should guarantee people the right to clean water.
This fall, the organizers of that campaign are inviting all of us to join a multi-faith project to explore how our spiritual, soul-level and faith-based connections with water can guide us in how to care for this life-giving element — the water upon which we all depend and through which we are all connected.
From Sept. 1 through Nov. 24 (Thanksgiving), the Florida Right to Clean Water campaign will be ‘Centering on Stewardship’ by encouraging people of all faiths and spiritual traditions to express the connections they have with water and to discuss what responsible stewardship means to them.
The inspiration for ‘Centering on Stewardship’ evolved from but is not limited to the Catholic observance of the Season of Creation, which runs from Sept.1, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, through Oct. 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology who is beloved by many Christians.
By extending that time period through Thanksgiving, the Florida Right to Clean Water campaign invites people of all faiths and spiritual paths to participate however they choose to do so in ‘listening to the voice of creation.’ Participation may happen through personal reflections at favorite outdoor spots, sermons, discussions, prayers, rituals, sustainability projects, environmental advocacy and by expressing our relationship with water through the creative arts — writing, drawing, painting, photography, poetry, music, crafts and more.
The big questions we are being asked to consider during ‘Centering on Stewardship’ are: How should we care about our waters? What does good stewardship look like? How should our legal system reflect, protect and promote our values and duties to care for Florida’s waters? What can we be willing to compromise? What is unacceptable?
For more information about ‘Centering on Stewardship’ including upcoming events and how you and/or your spiritual or religious group may get involved, visit www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/ stewardship. For more information on the Florida Right to Clean Water campaign and how you can help, visit www.floridarighttocleanwater.org.
For those of us who feel a spiritual connection to water, there may be great power in having people of all faiths and spiritual paths — Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Native Americans, pagans and more — taking time to center on stewardship this fall. For those of us on faith-based or spiritual paths who don’t feel such connections to water, ‘Centering on Stewardship’ may offer the opportunity to discover and even deepen those connections.
Personally, I can think of no better place to honor our spiritual connections with water than at some of the freshwater springs along the Santa Fe River.
‘Santa Fe,’ after all, means ‘Holy Faith.’
Lucinda Faulkner Merritt is a springs lover who was raised Presbyterian and is now following a Buddhist path (Tibetan tradition). Part of her Buddhist refuge vow included a vow to respect all religions.
