The water coming off the hills yesterday was brown and peaty (it usually is, to some degree). When I was young I used to drink water out of the hillside streams from time to time. AFAIK it did me no great harm. If it did, it was probably safer and certainly less antisocial than traditional young men’s pursuits like driving too fast or drinking oneself into unconsciousness. But you never know exactly what’s upstream – a dead sheep, or an impromptu sock laundry maybe.
Decent morning for a walk today.
As the water, in its taste or colour,
bears the mark of where it has been,
so we too bear the ‘baggage’ or our past.
Loving God, forgive our wrongs,
heal our wounds,
help us come to terms with deep trauma,
and bring us, just as we are,
with our histories, our hopes and our fears,
into the fullness of what we could be.