Words by Yvonne and Jane Riddiford

I never thought at this stage in my life I would be getting a crash course from my mother on the water cycle. When Yvonne heard we were hosting another field trip by the Ruamāhanga river for the year three class from Kahutara school, she proceeded to explain to me how the water cycle worked. I was transfixed as without missing a beat Yvonne described the journey of a water droplet; evaporating from a body of water or transpiring through the leaves of a plant, rising up and forming into clouds that are blown by the winds and cooled as they move into higher altitudes. When the burden of moisture becomes too heavy precipitation occurs, i.e. the clouds release the water as rain and so the cycle continues. I could tell that as she spoke Yvonne could see everything vividly in her mind’s eye. This is how she described her experience:

One of the ironic things about getting older is that as one’s sight deteriorates one’s observation and imagination increases; at least it has been like that for me. Lately hearing about the children coming to have sessions beside the river has given me an opportunity to think about water in a much more thoughtful and observant way. My reflections have been heightened by a relatively recent awareness of just how precious and indispensable water is in every aspect of our lives. I don’t know if we still export enormous quantities of our beautiful freshwater overseas as we have done in years gone by. I hope that practice no longer goes on.

Jane has shared with me the responses of the children from their time by the river, and I have read some of their writing. I am glad they are growing up with an awareness of the importance of our rivers, not only to our physical well being but also to our emotional wellbeing. I am also pleased that it has been possible for children to come and sit by the river and think about it in a way that I never did . As a child the river I lived beside burst out of the bush wild and free. It almost makes me weep to think how it is now reduced to a narrow channel. In those days we had no electricity and before lunch every day my father would take a jug down to the river to collect drinking water which was pure and so cold it was beading the jug by the time he returned. The river was definitely the focus of a lot of our play; creating harbours and carving out networks of canals. However at that age I never thought about the spiritual side of water and I am happy to see the children having that opportunity now along the Ruamāhanga and finding their own words to express it.

During dinner we discussed the various doorways into reflection we might offer the children on their field trip and afterwards back at school. As we usually do, we tried out the activities ourselves. Here is Yvonne’s letter;

Dear Water

Thank you for the lovely sound you made as you rushed down the Waimahora stream when I was a child, you sent me to sleep every night

You have played such an important role in all my life … hardly a day goes by when someone doesn’t say I wish it would rain , we have been so dry and if they don’t say that … they say when will this rain ever stop we are going to have a flood.

Whatever we get we know we can’t live without you and nor could all the trees and grasses … nor could every living thing in the world.

I have lived a very long time , 99 years and every day I feel grateful to you … and I know you have been around a lot longer than me, many billions of years.

Thank you
I Love you water

Yvonne

The next day, the children planted trees in the riparian strip beside the river and spent time being quiet beside the water. Finally we all sat inside our new field classroom, AKA bell tent. We shared Yvonne’s letter and invited them to write their own letters of appreciation to the Ruamāhanga River.

Class 3 Kahutara School and Volunteer Lunch after our July, Planting Morning

Back at school Rod and I worked with the class again, supporting them to imagine themselves as a droplet of water. Ideas came thick and fast as we collectively gathered a word bank on the white board; How did they feel? What was their journey like? Where did they go ? What did they look like? In silence they wrote in first person freefall style about their journey as a droplet of water, which some of them performed to the class.

To read the children’s writing see here.

Water oriented reflections rippled on throughout that week. On Sunday we had one of our monthly community planting mornings. This time we shared some of the children’s letters, as a way of inviting our volunteers to buddy up with a partner and share some of their own thoughts about water.