Check out the Great Lakes Commons! Becoming a Great Ancestor....
The Great Lakes Commons is a grassroots effort to establish the Great Lakes as a thriving, living commons — shared and sacred waters that we all protect in perpetuity. There are many wonderful events happening within our Great Lakes community. Visit their website to learn more!
The Great Lakes Commons works to:
Awaken & Restore our relationship to these incredible waters.
Activate a spirit of responsibility and belonging in the bioregion.
Establish stewardship and governance that enables communities to protect these waters forever.
The Great Lakes Commons works to:
Awaken & Restore our relationship to these incredible waters.
Activate a spirit of responsibility and belonging in the bioregion.
Establish stewardship and governance that enables communities to protect these waters forever.
March 22nd is World Water Day!
Visit the United Nations website to learn about worldwide events. Create your own World Water Day! See below for ideas on how you can appreciate water.
Appreciation is a Form of Action
Some have asked what we are doing to protect and improve Lake Superior. We believe appreciation is a form of doing. It is ceremony in action. We can amplify the action of appreciation by: getting into a quiet place, creating sacred space, setting a positive intention, coming into heart coherence and then expressing forms of appreciation. We honor that there are many ways to do this and simply share some ideas with you here. If they resonate with you, feel free to include them in your practice. If not, that is okay too.
Intention
What are we doing when we set an intention? Some traditions believe that we breathe our thoughts and words into action through our intentions- we breathe them into being the moment the intention is formed.
Author Gregg Braden shares a powerful story from his book, The God Code. A friend called him and asked if he would join him in a rain ceremony. The southwest had not had rain for many months. Crops were dying and water sources drying up. Gregg was thrilled to be asked and arrived the next day. They walked for miles in the desert, came to a sacred mound of stones. His friend, native to that area, asked Gregg to wait where he was standing and then the friend approached the stones. He offered blessings and appreciation to the 7 directions and then entered the circle. He stood quietly in the circle for 5 minutes, gave thanks, left the circle and said to Gregg, "I'm starving, you?". Gregg was confused saying to his friend, "What? I thought we were going to pray for rain?"
His friend replied, "No, no Gregg. If we pray for rain then that means that rain does not exist. We pray rain. We smell the rain, we hear the thunder and feel the rain drops fall upon our face, we feel the mud between our toes. We see the water sources full". It rained that evening.
We pray rain. We intend that which we want to see in this world as if it has already occurred. We intend it into being with the power of our thoughts, words and emotions, the feelings in our bodies. With the power of our intentions, we place our full attention on what we want to co-create. Intention is energy in movement. It is action!
As we create the words and thoughts for our intentions, we remember the research from Dr. Emoto on the messages of water. Through his study of water in relationship with words from many languages he observed that: "Words are energy. Energy is vibration and vibration is life. Words are vibration and thus words are life." Some words carry a high vibration and others lower. For instance, if pure water is what we are looking for. Then we would intend pure water versus something like no more polluted waters. The Law of Attraction teaches us that we are like radio towers and receivers. If we are thinking about pollution or using the statement no more polluted waters in our intention, then we are broadcasting the vibration of polluted waters and that vibration is then signaled back to us from the universe in the form of manifestation. If we are wanting pure water, then we simply change our channel (words/visualizations/feelings) so to speak and broadcast that we intend pure water, then that is what we attract and manifest.
Curious? Here are some websites that speak about the Power of Intention:
Abraham-Hicks.com
The Intention Experiment with Lynne McTaggart
Institute of Noetic Sciences
The "Intention Downloads" interview series
Author Gregg Braden shares a powerful story from his book, The God Code. A friend called him and asked if he would join him in a rain ceremony. The southwest had not had rain for many months. Crops were dying and water sources drying up. Gregg was thrilled to be asked and arrived the next day. They walked for miles in the desert, came to a sacred mound of stones. His friend, native to that area, asked Gregg to wait where he was standing and then the friend approached the stones. He offered blessings and appreciation to the 7 directions and then entered the circle. He stood quietly in the circle for 5 minutes, gave thanks, left the circle and said to Gregg, "I'm starving, you?". Gregg was confused saying to his friend, "What? I thought we were going to pray for rain?"
His friend replied, "No, no Gregg. If we pray for rain then that means that rain does not exist. We pray rain. We smell the rain, we hear the thunder and feel the rain drops fall upon our face, we feel the mud between our toes. We see the water sources full". It rained that evening.
We pray rain. We intend that which we want to see in this world as if it has already occurred. We intend it into being with the power of our thoughts, words and emotions, the feelings in our bodies. With the power of our intentions, we place our full attention on what we want to co-create. Intention is energy in movement. It is action!
As we create the words and thoughts for our intentions, we remember the research from Dr. Emoto on the messages of water. Through his study of water in relationship with words from many languages he observed that: "Words are energy. Energy is vibration and vibration is life. Words are vibration and thus words are life." Some words carry a high vibration and others lower. For instance, if pure water is what we are looking for. Then we would intend pure water versus something like no more polluted waters. The Law of Attraction teaches us that we are like radio towers and receivers. If we are thinking about pollution or using the statement no more polluted waters in our intention, then we are broadcasting the vibration of polluted waters and that vibration is then signaled back to us from the universe in the form of manifestation. If we are wanting pure water, then we simply change our channel (words/visualizations/feelings) so to speak and broadcast that we intend pure water, then that is what we attract and manifest.
Curious? Here are some websites that speak about the Power of Intention:
Abraham-Hicks.com
The Intention Experiment with Lynne McTaggart
Institute of Noetic Sciences
The "Intention Downloads" interview series
Heart Coherence

The heart is the most powerful generator of electromagnetic energy in the human body, producing the largest rhythmic electromagnetic field of any of the body's organs. The heart's electrical field is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the electrical activity generated by the brain. This field, measured in the form of an electrocardiogram (ECG), can be detected anywhere on the surface of the body. Furthermore, the magnetic field produced by the heart is more than 5,000 times greater in strength than the field generated by the brain, and can be detected a number of feet away from the body, in all directions, using SQUID-based magnetometers (Figure 12). Prompted by findings that the cardiac field is modulated by different emotional states, (described in the previous section), the HeartMath Institute performed several studies to investigate the possibility that the electromagnetic field generated by the heart may transmit information that can be received by others.
The heart's electromagnetic field--by far the most powerful rhythmic field produced by the human body--not only envelops every cell of the body but also extends out in all directions into the space around us. The cardiac field can be measured several feet away from the body by sensitive devices. Research conducted at IHM suggests that the heart's field is an important carrier of information.
When two people are at a conversational distance, the electromagnetic signal generated by one person's heart can influence the other person's brain rhythms. When an individual is generating a coherent heart rhythm, synchronization between that individual's brainwaves and another person's heartbeat is more likely to occur. For the first time, there was scientific proof that a compassionate heart can actually bring peace to the room. Couple that information with what we have learned from Dr. Emoto about the power of our thought, words and actions upon water. We can change the world! So the important thing to remember is being in heart coherence helps to lift our intentions. You can enter into coherence in many ways. Here is one way:
1. Focus your attention on the area of your heart. The area in the center of your chest.
2. Breathe deeply, but normally and feel as if your breath is coming in and out from your heart center.
3. As you maintain your heart focus and heart breathing, activate a positive feeling. Recall a positive feeling, a time when you felt good inside, and try to re-experience the feeling. One of the easiest ways to generate a positive, heart-based feeling is to remember a special place you’ve been to or the love you feel for a close friend or family member or treasured pet.
That is it! That is one simple way to come into a place of heart coherence. How do you do it?
The heart's electromagnetic field--by far the most powerful rhythmic field produced by the human body--not only envelops every cell of the body but also extends out in all directions into the space around us. The cardiac field can be measured several feet away from the body by sensitive devices. Research conducted at IHM suggests that the heart's field is an important carrier of information.
When two people are at a conversational distance, the electromagnetic signal generated by one person's heart can influence the other person's brain rhythms. When an individual is generating a coherent heart rhythm, synchronization between that individual's brainwaves and another person's heartbeat is more likely to occur. For the first time, there was scientific proof that a compassionate heart can actually bring peace to the room. Couple that information with what we have learned from Dr. Emoto about the power of our thought, words and actions upon water. We can change the world! So the important thing to remember is being in heart coherence helps to lift our intentions. You can enter into coherence in many ways. Here is one way:
1. Focus your attention on the area of your heart. The area in the center of your chest.
2. Breathe deeply, but normally and feel as if your breath is coming in and out from your heart center.
3. As you maintain your heart focus and heart breathing, activate a positive feeling. Recall a positive feeling, a time when you felt good inside, and try to re-experience the feeling. One of the easiest ways to generate a positive, heart-based feeling is to remember a special place you’ve been to or the love you feel for a close friend or family member or treasured pet.
That is it! That is one simple way to come into a place of heart coherence. How do you do it?
Expressing Appreciation
Here are some ways to express appreciation to the water:
- go to a water source, sing to the water, gift the water with something beautiful and biodegradable
- offer water your love and appreciation in any way or tradition that resonates with you
- place the word thank you onto your water sources
- offer to the water Dr. Emoto's invocation: Water, I love you; Water, I thank you; Water, I respect you
- offer the same invocation to the water you hold in your body
- envision Lake Superior and all waters as balanced, vibrant and pure, really feel what that would feel like to be in the presence of that intention; what would that look like? Intend it as if it has already occurred
- envision all living beings on the planet with access to clean water, see them appreciating and in celebration with the water and one another
- envision all of humanity living in harmony with the water and the earth; living in harmony with one another. What does that look like? feel like? Intend it as if it has already happened.
- give thanks every time you turn on the faucet or the shower
- minimize your use of water
- carry your own water bottle with you, avoid purchasing plastic water bottles
- save water from cooking, water bottles and other sources and give to your plants or the earth
- collect rain water with appreciation and share it with your garden
- sing to your rain water and then offer that water to your garden
- write words of love and appreciation on your water bottle and gift your body with that sacred water, do the same for your pets and plants
- create a water garden
- offer a little water back to the earth before drinking
- clean and honor the natural springs, lakes, and rivers in your area
- create a water proclamation with your community
- become a Lake Superior Steward
- beautify a water source with flowers or trees (wells, natural springs...)