water bubbling up

I am sitting by the side of a rice field, and near here there's a spot where water bubbles up out of the ground. I guess that it's piped there, because some days the water is flowing and some days not. But when the water is flowing, there's a great joy in it.

It's not the slow steady flow of a mature river. This is water in the exuberance of youth, bubbling up out of the ground, bouncing, dancing, joyful, effervescent. Seeing it brings joy to my heart. It's as if the water is full of this joie de vivre, loving life, wanting to play, wanting to move. It's so full of vitality. And I can see why the rice plants hereabouts grow so lush and green, watered with this vitality.

And seeing all this, watching and listening to the bubbling water, it resonates with something deep inside me, my own joy of life. And deeper even than that, there is that flame in my being, that can never be extinguished, and this water reminds me of that: the way that flame can flare up inside me, dancing, alive, wild. And some days I can lose touch with it altogether, as if it's not there at all. And yet it is waiting to burst forth once more: my essence, our spirit, who we really are. It has a quality that this water has, the quality of playfulness, of aliveness, the quality of life, dancing, joyful, unstoppable. Ahh.