This post was co-written by Pachamama Alliance staff member Aryeh Shell and Chante Ishta, a long-time member of the Rochester Pachamama community and the Earth Eden Sanctuary, a 20-acre parcel of restored and re-wilded, rural land she’s called home since 2001.

It’s a well-known truth: water is life. It nourishes every cell of our being, animates the living body of Earth, and connects all things. But how well do we truly understand or relate to water—not just as a “thing” to be consumed but as a living intelligent being?

In dominant Western paradigms, water is often reduced to a “resource”—something we can divert, store, sell, pollute, exploit or take for granted. But for many Indigenous traditions, and for those who have remembered how to listen, water is so much more: a sacred relative, a wise teacher, a keeper of memory, and a force of Spirit with its own agency and presence. How might we begin to acknowledge and honor its spirit, its mysteries, its power and generosity?

Water teaches us how to flow, how to adapt, how to cleanse, how to change form and how to move with grace. It is a master shapeshifter, existing in so many forms—vapor, dew, rain, river, ocean, tears, or ice—its power capable of carving canyons over centuries or growing food for billions of beings. Inside each of our cells, water is like a living river within us, carrying the nutrients, oxygen and chemical signals needed to sustain our bodies. Water is life!

How might we restore a felt sense of kinship with the waters of our bodies and the living Earth? It can begin with listening—not just metaphorically, but literally through all of our senses—what does water want us to know or remember now? And it can be sustained by expressing our appreciation and our gratitude every time we turn on the tap or shower, take a drink, water our garden, dip in the river, walk through the rain or along the ocean’s edge. 

A Simple Practice for Honoring Water

The following is a meditative practice to begin (or deepen) your relationship with water. This practice is not about “doing it right”—it is a way to open oneself to water’s wisdom.  It is about entering into a relationship—with humility, gratitude, and presence. Your honoring practice can change its form and shape, like water—just allow it to flow through you!

Water Blessing Practice

Prepare to Visit Water

Choose a nearby stream, pond, river, or ocean—any natural body of water. Bring a glass vessel with you.

Arrive with Reverence

As you approach the water, pause. Greet it with reverence and respect, as a force of nature, or as you would a beloved elder or wise friend. Offer a few deep breaths and let your heart soften in gratitude.

Listen and Reflect

If it’s still water, gaze into its surface. Look into your own reflection and ask silently:
Who is looking back at me? Let this question rest in your contemplative mind.

If it’s moving water, place your hands or body into the current. Feel its energy, temperature, rhythm or flow. Is it gentle or forceful? What sounds accompany its movement? How does your body respond to its touch?

Fill Your Vessel

Now fill your vessel with some water. Hold it close to your heart and feel your connection. Just as water courses through the living body of earth as its lifeblood, so too, does it flow through you. We owe our existence to water. Allow yourself to fully acknowledge this relationship and how dependent we are on its presence.

Offer Gratitude

Close your eyes and bring to mind all the ways water blesses your life: the rain that grows your food, the glass you drink in the morning, the oceans that regulate the planet’s temperature, the tears you’ve shed in joy and sorrow.

Direct your gratitude to the water in your vessel like a prayer, giving thanks for every way we are nourished by it. Speak or sing your gratitude and blessings into the water—infuse every molecule with love and reverence.  Offer it a prayer. 

Return the Blessing

With great love, return the water to its source so that your gratitude and prayers can ripple outward into the wider currents. Trust that your blessing is carried by the water to all the places it will flow. Know it is done.

Close with Intention

As you leave, you might ask yourself:

• How might I live in deeper reciprocity with water?
• What can I do every day to bless and protect the waters?

This simple act of honoring water reminds us that we are not separate. We are part of a self-organizing, living, adapting, flowing, breathing Earth—one that is intelligent, interconnected, and always in communication. Every breath, prayer, gratitude, blessing and act of protection that we offer brings us back into a sacred relationship with the Spirit of life that is Water. The waters can remind us where and how to flow through these turbulent times. 

“It’s good for you to pray into the water because it actually intensifies your prayer. So literally, you know that water evaporates and can travel through the clouds. Your intentions and your words travel through the clouds and they can go anywhere they want to go.”  - Pat McCabe