Te Aroha. In english, it means ‘the love’. It’s a place in New Zealand with hot mineral baths, historically known to be healing waters. A few years ago, I climbed its mountain. Where it was most demanding, I chanted the chorus of the song Love, love, love by Avalanche City; not because I felt particularly loving, because the more tempting option was to complain.
I looked back over some notes I’ve jotted down for this blog and although I have no recollection of where they’re from, these words jumped out at me, “the wounding was the water they swam in”. What a vivid phrase!
Healing waters, wounding waters, water is such an important part of us.
I read a true story of a man in Africa who moved his whole family to a mountain area where there was no clean water. Straight away, we know they had challenges ahead. Without clean water, they couldn’t drink, couldn’t wash, couldn’t rely on a consistent supply. Every drop required boiling or filtering just to make it usable.
In 2012, our family lived in the mountains of Peru for four months. One day, three of us took a bus with others to a local waterfall and walked back. We took snacks and water, but we hadn’t anticipated how hot and dry it would be. As we gradually walked up the valley, the boys finished their water. Watching them, I saved mine because the hard climb was ahead. I watched one of the local guys fill up his water in the river before we began the hour-long switchback climb up the last, steepest part to the town. I imagined the giardia and all the other potential nasties in his bottle. I think his intention was just to pour it over his head if he got too hot.
We began the ascent and it was hard going. I divided my water between my two boys and felt the effects of dehydration myself. Eventually, our water was gone, and we had to keep climbing. The locals and the young adults with us reached the top, waiting for me to coax the boys to them. They were also tired and ready to continue through the town to home.
About thirty metres from the top, close enough to hear the voices of the young people, not close enough to hear what they said, one of the boys sat down in exhaustion. “We’re almost there,” I encouraged. “You can do it.” I had talked him this far, but no amount of encouragement moved him now. He was completely spent. He refused to climb a step further without water. What was I to do? We were so close! I couldn’t leave him here and go all the way back home. We didn’t have money to buy a drink in the town. The voices of the others started to sound impatient. I sent the other boy up to the others, but no one came back down to see if we needed help. Trouble was, my son was so beside himself I wasn’t convinced that he would stay safe if I left him. Eventually, I managed to calm him and told him about the local’s water bottle. If he just waited here, I would climb and get that water for him. I didn’t tell him where the water was from.
I climbed and explained the situation to the others, the young guy with the water climbed back down with me, the others continued home. Relief flooded my son’s face as we passed him the bottle. I watched tiny green specks lift from the bottom of the bottle to suspend in the water as he tipped it to his mouth. I knew he would get sick from this water, but I reasoned that I had medication back at the house and my other option was a hysterical child thrashing around on a cliff with a high likelihood of injury or disappearance.
Almost immediately, he recovered. The water truly was what he needed. The three of us climbed the last of the cliff face and made our way home. When we got there, the others were just bringing out home-squeezed lemonade, sweet and cool. We sank into chairs and allowed the drink and chatter to refresh us. It was quite the adventure.
Three hours later, my son vomited. I got out the medication. When I told him where the water was from, he couldn’t believe I let him drink it. I reflected back to him the state he was in and he agreed; I hadn’t really had a choice under the circumstances. He took the medication and recovered, though it was an unpleasant process.
Water is crucial. We drink it, we wash in it, the water we use impacts our wellbeing.
If lemonade is too strong, we add more water. If we spill tea or coffee on our shirt, we dilute it with water until it is gone. We’re in a bath and our bodies are so determined to dissolve into the water that we turn into prunes.
Whether we soak in it, take it internally or use it for washing, the water we use impacts us.
Giardia is a parasite. It enters our system when we drink unclean water. There is medication that specifically targets it. Although giardia makes you sick, if you have access to the right resources, you do not have to live with it long term.
What water do you soak in? What water do you drink? What sets the atmosphere around you? What does the water around you carry?
Do you swim in waters of wounding or waters of healing? When your body tries to assimilate to your surroundings, what do you align with?
Some of us have experienced unhealthy water given to us by someone we trusted. It was packaged up as clean and we thought it was good, but we got sick as a result. We ended up with parasites.
Just because that water made you sick doesn’t mean that you need to remain sick. Neither does it follow that you keep drinking from that source.
Sometimes we have to reach for what is available and that is not always healthy, but it is our best option in the moment. When our water makes us sick, let’s not remain that way. Let’s not swim in the waters of wounding. Let’s reach for the healing resources available for our situation.
When we rinse something and the water gets dirty, we tip it out and get fresh water. Is there dirty or unhealthy water in your life that needs tipping out and replacing?
What is your source of clean water? Do you need to boil or filter what is available or do you have a trusted source?
How fitting that the healing waters in Te Aroha are named love. You could say that we are born out of love. Our very first relationships envelope us in love, or at least they are meant to. Love is what we are designed to thrive in. Love is our sustenance.
Is your love unclean or tainted by parasites? Do you latch onto others and drain their energy? Do you love conditionally, based on what you can get from the relationship? Or do you love people despite their choices and allow healing waters to flow over them?
When things get hard and we’re tempted to complain, we can go with it and embrace the grumbling or choose instead to remind ourselves of love. Looking back at the walk, up mount Te Aroha, I remember it being hard, but I also remember the determination not to let the challenge ruin a beautiful experience. I remember the song I surrounded myself with – I cannot tell you all the times I have sung that song, but I can tell you about that time because it made such an impact. It was the opposite of everything I felt.
When things are smooth, it is easy to love. When it is tough, we can make the choice to love anyway. We’ll remember it, it takes effort. But it will also shape our memories of that time and keeping the waters around us clean. If complaining is your go-to at the moment, make the choice to allow love into your situation. It might not make the journey easier, but it may help with your processing and healing and the enduring outcomes of this season.
The healing, mineral waters in Te Aroha regenerated health as the sick immersed themselves in the water. Even when things aren’t good, your atmosphere indicates the direction you’re heading. What surrounds you ultimately affects your wellbeing. How will you immerse yourself in healing waters this week?
