Little Stilla

Did you know that every March 22nd is World Water Day? That’s today and it is about supporting the maintenance of fresh water in a sustainable way. The United Nations has marked and observed this day since 1993. I only recently found out about this day and it makes me wonder about water.

Pausing

Taking time out of our all-consuming, busy lives to acknowledge and observe the world around us gets us present to and appreciative of what we are looking at. It also does us good to slow down once in a while, something I continue to work on. The history of both the human and natural worlds was built on the foundation and ecology of water as sustenance. Today, reflect on the wonder of water. Experience its softness and malleability. Notice its calmness and quiet power. That water you see can stick to itself, be slippery, fall from the sky as rain, get boiling hot, turn into solid ice, help wash your hands, rise from the earth as a geyser, have a high pH called alkaline, be brackish due to a touch of salt, and any wonderful combination you can think of. Let in its versatility. Each drop has a story that spans the ages.

A Uniquely Molecular Fantasy

Consider if a water molecule could talk, what could it possibly share about its adventures? Maybe the drop you see today has an H2O molecule that spent a millennium on Antarctica at some point? Let’s call our molecule Arden Stilla. What if Arden then evaporated and traversed the globe with its like-minded compadres as a tiny cloud? Landing perhaps in an Arabian desert through an intense 10-minute deluge our little Stilla may then evaporate quickly and once again find its way to a river in China, before getting in a long line at the Three Gorges Dam awaiting its turn. Arden may have then thrust out with such force that it once again was airborne, finding its way through the air to a rice field in Japan. There it clung to a grain of rice and eventually was consumed by a visiting sailor.

Not long after, it transformed as sweat on the sailor’s brow and found itself back in the air above the Pacific Ocean, drifting thousands of miles to Maui’s Big Bog. Our molecule then utilized its cohesive properties, having been dripped into the soil, becoming part of a column of water in the xylem of a plant. There again Arden waited its turn to evaporate at the surface of the plant’s leaves, a process called transpiration. It then condensed on a tourist’s backpack, finding its way on an airplane home to Vancouver Island, where it was breathed in by a plumber and left as a tear drop on one sad day. Now in a Kleenex, the molecule finds itself in a trash heap on its way to a landfill, but a hole in the bag has it fly out to freedom and picked up soon after but this time to be recycled with a garden compost, transforming slowly, naturally, and with love from the sun into a crisp summer watermelon enjoyed on your next beautiful family picnic outing.

What’s the point of this fantastical journey our molecular friend, Arden Stilla, has taken? That’s for you to choose. I will say that if you can’t see yourself in Stilla in some way, then maybe you need your molecules rearranged?

World Water Day

Jane Austen has said, “Where the waters do agree, it is quite wonderful the relief they give.” Meanwhile, Lucy Larcom once said, “A drop of water, if it could write out its own history, would explain the universe to us.”  Given each of us is creating history every day through our actions in business and life – as we traverse the globe as our little Stilla does - maybe it is time for us to find places to agree with one another, and bring wonder, relief, and stillness to life. Maybe that fantasy we shared above, which isn’t so far-fetched really, is our access to accepting our own transformation through life, just as Stilla does.

World Water Day is actually every day. The transformation of water, business and life is a never-ending process to be embraced as a journey through newness and discovery. Arden Stilla’s adventures speak to the Heraclitus quote, “The only constant in life is change.” This is how life is. This is how your life is. Enjoy every droplet of World Water Day. Celebrate all the water out in the world – fresh or otherwise - and appreciate all the little Stillas that found their way along their journey inside of you, making you the embodiment of the universe. 

Here's to you and your awesome future.

Until then, keep your feet on the board and keep riding your wave!

Robert J. Khoury

CEO Agile Rainmakers