Water is the true stuff of life,
The deep mystery at the centre of all that is.
Water exists in a continuous state of flow,
a constant state of transformation.
Confronted by heat or cold, it turns shape-shifter;
mysterious mists weave their enchantments,
clouds build castles in the air,
Jack Frost traces ferns across the glass,
the land is pelted by hail and graupel,
and blanketed by a quilt of snow.
The lake freezes and, later, thaws;
watching the ice come in and leave
teaches me patience with the ebb and flow,
the unseen nature of transformation.
After days of retreat and revelation
a clear sheet forms over the returned water,
once – oh joy! – with the exquisite,
unexpected blooming of frost flowers.
Yet the process of change
continues inexorably,
moment by moment rewriting
the relationship between ice and water
in patterns of constriction and release,
of return to rigidity, then surge and flood.
Transformation exists
in every moment.
What is now
is not the same as what just was
or will be.
Out on the lake,
the ice lets go as we watch;
the clouds race across
the new-blue sky
casting shadow spells
or float in the emerging reflective stillness.
Beneath all is the constancy of water
and a process of transformation
without beginning or end.
Water is the true stuff of life,
but life is all transformation!
April 2018