"Ithaca Falls"  copyright 2011, Caris Cerdwyn, All rights reserved

This is one of my favorite spots to go and allow things to wash away.  A place to let go of things that hurt or frustrate, humiliate or confuse me.  What magic is there about waterfalls that one comes away from a visit feeling as though all the muck is washed away, at least for the moment?

I have seen this waterfall in every season now...during late summer when the water levels are fairly low.  I have gone during the autumn when the leaves are golden and crimson, a frame of such blazing color around her joyous rushing waters.  I have gone during the winter when she is frozen solid, the ice colored white and green and pale blue.  (I wonder, are there fish frozen in that frozen waterfall?  Just suspended there in midair for the winter?)  And during the spring, when how many millions of gallons flow over those rocks every day?  She is a powerful force, this waterfall.  Not to be reckoned with, but respected. 

There are some who have not respected her power.  Some who venture too closely to all that falling water, and end up injured or drowned. 

It is essential to recognize the flow of power, and then to respect it.  This waterfall has been a consistent healing presence in my life for which I am immensely grateful.  And yet for others she is the source of injury or loss.  A lack of respect for power, becoming arrogant or careless can have heartbreaking consequences.  Sometimes it is our own power that we forget that we have, and we are the ones who become arrogant or careless, causing immeasurable harm to another. 

Oops...there I go again, sermonizing a bit.  I'm thinking about a situation in my own life where I became arrogant, when someone elses power caused me harm.  I wielded my own power in a kind of retaliation, without even realizing that was what I was doing.

I want water of life to flow through me in abundance.  But may it bring life and peace.  May it be a source of comfort...a place where others can come and pour out their sadness, their loss, their anger, and know that it will be gently washed away.  And when they leave, may they find themselves renewed, clear headed, cool and clean on a hot summer day,  ready to get back in the fray of living.