WATER MEDITATION

“…and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.”

Wilson River (Click on image for slightly larger version) Feb. 2008

At a bend in the Wilson River, under the footbridge trailhead, quick flowing water bottlenecks into a narrow rock gorge. The river’s character, once loud and boisterous immediately becomes subdued and sullen. Though popular proverbs suggest that deep waters run quiet, turbulence and turmoil are reflected in the river’s tortured face.

In their Case Study: Water and Ice, Timothy A. Isgro, Marcos Sotomayor, and Eduardo Cruz-Chu admit that …the microscopic structure of liquid water is unknown…

Figure 3: Views of the crystal structure of ice (a-c) and a view of liquid water (d). a) Along the c-axis of the lattice (showing the basal plane) with all 3 equivalent a-axes in the plane of the page and the c-axis coming out of the page, b) With an a-axis running left to right (showing the primary prism plane), c) Along an a-axis, d) Liquid water at 300 K. The difference in the density between ice and liquid water is apparent. The density of liquid water at 4_C is 1.00 g/cm3, while that of ice at 0_C is 0.917 g/cm3

Wilson River, Feb. 2008

Here, where the winter sun dips below the coast range and leaves the gorge in perpetual shade, the river utilizes hydraulic power in combination with crystalline wedges, to chip out an ever wider passage to the sea.

Multnomah Creek, Jan. 2008

Oregon Coast-Near Newport, March 2008

The interface between water and land is sometimes violent. The earth is broken and polished in continent wide rock tumblers.

Silver Falls State Park, May 2008

…or pummeled by streams approaching terminal velocities.

Water Returning to the Sea - near Newport, March 2008

Considerable sifting and sorting occurs.

Sauvie Island shoreline

Patterns emerge and repeat

Wave sculpture - near Seaside,OR

Layers of order arise from chaos

Perhaps the chemical structure of clay, or something like it, once provided the scaffolding by which early proteins ordered themselves.

…then an explosion of life

Considerable sifting and sorting occurs




Brats boiling in beer (one of the more important ways water sustains life on earth)




Wikipedia, while describing the hydrologic cycle, says, “Since the water cycle is truly a ‘cycle’, there is no beginning or end.”

Does water sing as it runs down hill?

Sky sailing

How many humans does it take to ruin the hydrologic cycle?

About 7 billion?

Trace amounts of oil, presumably washed off Marine Drive, trickle into the slough above the Smith and Bybee wetlands.

Over time, wetlands (if you have any) can strain pollutants out of water, but the timeline for taking care of the clever byproducts we have managed to produce isn’t really established yet.

"Water dissolving...and water removing

There is water at the bottom of the ocean"

Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime