Sand, Wind, Water

That's the basic stuff.

On this beach in Northwest Oregon, on this particular day all the ingredients showed up in the same proportions.  

Things I get to do today took me two miles along the water to the north end of Cannon Beach.  

Texture details in the sand varied wildly.  

What makes the difference?  

The recipe is the same--sand, wind, water. 

Is it the direction it was stirred?

Running Cold and Hot

My hot water tank lives in the garage.  Most of us would say that's a pretty nice home for something so wonderfully necessary.  I agree: when I'm taking a shower or bath, the tank is close to the job with quick and soothing hot water.  When I'm in working in the kitchen and want it now, it's another story.  Though in actual distance it seems like half a mile that the hot stuff has to flow to reach me, it cannot be.  It's not even 75 feet (the width of our property).  Since we often measure distance with time, I put a clock to the process--1 minute and 12 seconds and 1 1/2 gallons of water to bring it hot to my hand in the kitchen.

With fall and rain and rain and fall and more rain coming on, why would I be even slightly interested in this detail.  We have plenty of water.  For one thing I know that water is one of our most precious resources, and that if I am grateful for it and careful with it even when there is an abundance, I will never be without.

So getting back to the 1 minute and 12 second.  My husband, bless his dear and wonderful heart, parks his car outside in the driveway so that I can park my little car all cozied up in the garage (with the hot water heater, you may remember.  We may need to investigate at another time what is going on with those two).  That's no big deal in the summer, but in the winter the half-lit air of early morning is often just above freezing.  Our household technique for cleaning the car windows for safe driving to work is to pour warm/hot water over them.  So there we are in the kitchen, running precious gallons of drinkable water down the drain while we wait.  And wait and wait.  Frankly, it bothers me more than a little.

Catching it, not wasting it

Today I changed my wait time to Things I get to do today to save water and grabbed a large pitcher to catch the cold-sometime-becoming-warm water.  But with not one plant in my house or yard needing a drink, what to do with this abundant but precious liquid?









Washing machine to the rescue!  That's where it went, and fortunately for me--probably to karmically offset the tank-in-the-garage thing--my washing machine is only a few feet away from my kitchen sink.  Next load of clothes to be washed already has a few gallons ready for the job.*

*I have no idea if this would work on a front load machine. Try it and let me know.

Sunshine Wine

It's really just water.  But I "make" it in a jug.  It sits outside next to the house for enough days to get really good.  Here's the oxymoron:  it seems like nothing and yet it's absolutely everything.

I'm asking you to use a very generous dose of your imagination for the next couple of minutes.  Go to your faucet and fill a glass with water, filtered water, if you have it.  Set it on the counter.  Then pretend you can feel the good and vibrant healthy energy coming from that water.  Using both hands, palms toward the water and about three feet away from it, move your hands slowly toward your glass of water.  Stop when you feel a very slight pulse or tingle in your palms.  That's the edge of the energy "glow" of your water.  Likely, if you live in my town, your hands will be about a foot or less away from the glass.

Without sun energy, life on earth wouldn't last long.  We benefit from the sun energy when we are outside, and we benefit from the sun energy that is stored in the plants and foods we eat.  We could also drink in this sun energy.  That's what I do.

 Water collecting Sun Energy

I fill a glass gallon jug with filtered water, and set it on the South side of my house where it can get the maximum solar benefit.  It absorbs solar energy until I'm ready for it.  There's a gallon of sun water in the house that I'm drinking from.  When it is empty, I refill it and swap it for the one in the sun.  And that's the water I drink.

My Sunshine Wine

Using your same imagination and same process for measuring the good and vibrant healthy energy coming from the water, if you were to assess the "glow" of the sun water, you might find it radiated anywhere from two and half to three feet from the glass.  That is a remarkable difference.  And when you drink the water, that energy is yours.


If you are looking for a very cheap "high" and no hangover, start drinking your own home-made sunshine wine. It's one of the Things I get to do today (and everyday).