Connections and Cycles

Posted on | March 21, 2006 | 1 Comment

This past weekend, Becoming made its third annual pilgrimage to the headwaters of the Potomac River. Our intent was:

to honor and bless the source of the waters that run through the land on which we live. We ask humbly for her to return and bring abundance to our land and our lives in this coming year.

Usually, there is snow on the northward faces of the hills and mountains along US-50 once you pass Romney, West Virginia, and gain elevation. Usually, the little parking lot is filled with mushy snow and tire tracks. Usually, a multitude of streamlets hurry down the hillside into the pool that lies at the source. Usually, the ground is juicy, so wet that pools spring up around your feet at you step through the grass that is just beginning to peep out from the snow. Usually, there is a deep pool under the boulder that marks the headwaters, and a rushing stream running from it. The Potomac here is small enough to straddle with a foot on either side.

But this year, there has not been much snow.

I rejoiced in this fact over the winter. I live in the city where snow means black slush two hours after it falls. Cold and snow and I do not get along. Little snow meant that walking to work everyday was pleasant. Little snow meant my feet and the bottom of my jeans were dry when I came indoors. Little snow meant I was not stuck in the house for days on end, while I waited for the government trucks to dig us out.

Little snow also meant no pools, no streamlets, no rushing water at the source.

This year’s pilgrimage brought home the fact that what may be inconvenient during one season is essential for the growth of the next. No snow in the city is a sign of little snow in the mountains which means the river will be lower — and all this impacts wildlife habitat, agriculture, and water usage this summer in the city.

Next year, I hope for black slush and wet feet.

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