trickle of water

I'm in the padi fields at Hampi. And my little walk was arrested by the sound of the water, trickling from one padi to the next. And now I'm looking at it, it's going down a little whirlpool, like a plug hole. I don't think somebody's made it that way. It's just found its own way. But it was the sound that I wanted to talk about: the trickle of water.

Closing my eyes, listening to this trickle, for me, the sound itself represents life. Water is so fundamental to life on earth, And it's fundamental to our own lives. How long would we last without fresh water? A few days at most. And somehow this trickling sound, as the water moves from one field of rice to the next, it really encapsulates this life affirming aspect of water. It has a lightness to it, a lightness of being, and a freshness, a purity. Water is also so cleansing. And in a way that's our spiritual life: an ongoing journey of cleansing.

All of this is coming to me, as I pause here in the padi fields, and listen to the trickle of water.