Together We Are An Ocean

Photo by Denise Rochon

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”

~ Ryunosuke Satoro

Together we are an ocean. Together, our bodies are constituted of about 70% of water. Water is the most common substance of our body and on the surface of the Earth.

Without water, life cannot exist.

If 70 percent of our body is constituted of water and that the same is true about the earth, are we not deeply related? Have you ever flown by airplane or helicopter at a low altitude and followed the curves of rivers, hills and mountains? Have you noticed how they resemble our physical body as if looking through a magnifying glass? The rivers looking like our blood vessels, and the ocean’s pulses as does our cardiovascular system. Ancient wisdom through ages and traditions recognized balance in all aspects of life.

We are part of the elements of the planet: air, water, earth, and fire. Water is the medium in which all chemical reactions occur in our earthly bodies. Water flows through our blood vessels, carrying oxygen and nutrients to the cells, and removing waste. Without water, we become dehydrated, waste accumulates in our cells and all functions become altered, leading to death often within only 3 to 5 days.

The same occurs in our environment where, without water, most creatures and plants cannot survive. If contamination occurs, life is endangered. This same water that is integral to all life, human or not, and that we drink today, has been present here on the Earth since the planet’s early evolution where the largest part of the world’s oceans were formed over the past 4.6 billions years. We owe our very existence to the dead stars that came before our sun was even born. Their hydrogen and oxygen have been spread across the early Solar System to concentrate here as water on Earth, and fill up our oceans, lakes and rivers. How this happened is a mystery.

Today however, we feel fragile in the way our water is being contaminated, and because the protections of our natural resources are being denied. Without a healthy environment to live in, how can our health not be affected? Here in Canada, we are the second largest country on earth. We are home to 20% of the remaining clean water in the world, and 12% of the remaining natural habitat.

As Canadians, we value our vast wilderness, oceans, lakes, rivers, mountains and forests. Yet, as Canadians we don’t have the constitutional right to a healthy environment. In fact, nearly 100 countries in the world have given their citizens constitutional rights to have clean water, clean air and healthy communities, and those rights are protected by law. But, surprisingly, not here in Canada where we certainly must hold some of the responsibility for the remaining earth’s resources.

Life is so precious! It is often when we are losing someone whom we love that we are reminded of this fact. Think about all the children who don’t have access to clean water, air and healthy environments, especially in native communities, industrial areas and the inner city. Young children can die from dehydration and malnutrition, as a result of suffering from diarrhea illnesses that could be prevented by clean water and good hygiene.

Shortage of water due to contamination and industrial abuse is becoming a serious threat. In fact, over the past decade, oil and gas exploration has exploded here in unprecedented ways with tens of thousands of oil, gas wells, and criss-crossed pipelines. According to the David Suzuki Foundation, Canada is now endowed with the fourth-largest amount of technically recoverable shale gas resources in the world and most of these are in B.C. Besides the obvious threats from oil spills, fracking poses serious risks to drinking water quality and human health. Generally, 2-8 million gallons of potential drinking water may be used to frack each single well. Considering where our drinking water is going and without high quality research it is difficult to know the short and long term impacts of the more than 700 hundreds man made chemicals used in the fracking process, which are now running deep into our ground water and poisoning mother nature and all its inhabitants.

Until we are given a comprehensive health impact assessment done with full public participation, will we stand up for our children and for the next generations? We are body, mind and spirit. We are immersed in a bio-electro-magnetic field where each life is interrelated. We are like fish in the ocean and depend upon this vast receptacle for our own health.

And remember that if individually we are one drop, together as a voice, we are also an ocean!

To know more and to take action:

• www.davidsuzuki.org/issues/health/right-to-healthy-environment/
• www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnOlxeRHigE#t=23
• action2.davidsuzuki.org/healthy_environment_petition
• davidsuzuki.org/blogs/climate-blog/2014/09/more-research-needed-on-northeast-bcs-shale-gas-boom/

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony”.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

RECIPE OF THE MONTH

“The future of nutrition is found in the ocean.”

– Jacques Yves Cousteau

INSPIRATION OF THE MONTH

To continue to be inspired on Together We Are The Ocean, enjoy this other film by award winning cinematographer Louie Schwartzberg, a visual artist known to break barriers and tell stories that reveal the mysteries and wisdom of nature.

As of November 2023, this video is no longer available on YT due to a copyright claim.

“The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope.
Now, as never before, the old phrase has a newer meaning: we are all in the same boat.”

~ Jacques Yves Cousteau

Again, I want to thank each one and every one of you for your interest and support in reading my newsletter, and to pass it on. I find myself of service in this big picture of life, where to understand our own health, it is often valuable to understand our place in our surroundings, living consciously, with an awareness of our own nature and of the world around us, how it affects us and how we, in turn, affect nature and the world. My goal is to help you in making informed choices for yourselves, your families and loved ones. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve as a guide and facilitator toward empowerment, helping you in developing the necessary tools and confidence to take your health into your own hands. Furthermore, I want to express my sincere gratitude for the possibility to share, and for the precious and endless teachings that I receive from each and every one of you. We are truly interconnected!

In Health, Love and Joy,
Denise