IMAGE BY LILLIAN LAKE
My very close friend and colleague, Janet Nestor, holistic therapist, speaker, and author of several books on wellness and wholeness, including Pathways to Wholeness and Yeshua: 100 Meaningful Messages for Messengers, inspired this week’s column. Neither of us can remember how we met, except that it was in a Twitter chat that she noticed me and was drawn by my energy. She always says “I remember thinking, I need to meet her”. And she was right. Over more than a decade, we’ve been through thick and thin, and what began as a “soul” acquaintance has grown into a mutual learning experience built on the foundation of friendship. We tell each other everything as we laugh and cry and may spend three hours at a time in conversation.
In a conversation about death and dying, we circled back around to 2006 when her mother was in hospice care. Janet had a tumultuous childhood but looked out for her mother’s well-being. The hospice story that haunts her to this day, long after her mom’s passing, was her mother being refused water. The attitude of the staff was that her mother was dying and didn’t need water. Understand, that while less so today, at the time, this was a common belief. I encountered it when I was caring for my mother, although, I was caring for my mother at home with the mission of serving her requests and needs. With the sound of intense pain in her voice, Janet recounted how she felt not being allowed to give her mother water. “Water is a basic need. Whether you are in the process of dying or not. She needed water. She should have had it.”
In 2014, for nearly four months, I took care of my cousin, Betty, who had a rare form of breast cancer. She had home hospice care, with nursing visits once a week. Near the end, the visits were increased. I asked about the water issue. It was left up to me, as Betty’s carer, when I gave her water. As she neared the time of transition, Betty ate less, but she still asked for water. Eventually, she only took sips, but I continued to give her water. I remember it being the last thing she asked for previous to her passing 24 hours later.
Our bodies are mostly water. Our brains don’t function well when we are dehydrated. When someone is stressed or anxious, we offer water to calm them. As seen during the recent pandemic, humans, with an innate need, are drawn to rivers, lakes, streams, and oceans when seeking to feel well physically and heartfully. Water reflects the human spirit. When water is unhealthy, it reflects its surrounding environment, including that of humans.
Water is in its element when it is allowed to flow freely over and around bumps and obstacles. It cleanses. It represents God’s abundance, the flow of life, transformation, and transition.
Water holds our state of awareness, our perception of being. We are drawn to it because we are coming back home.
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