The Water Guardians
About This Project
Transcript:
Heather McElhatton: Elizabeth Rogers lives in Penn Valley California. She is a Water Guardian.
Elizabeth Rogers: A Water Guardian is someone who recognizes the essential nature of water for all life on earth and is dedicated to protecting it.
HM : Rogers’ connection to water started when she was young, not surprising considering she grew up next to one of the most beautiful bodies of water in North America, Lake Tahoe.
ER: It’s one of the deepest lakes on the planet and that caught me. My school was across from the lake, it was a constant presence. My home had a creek on it, that was my haven. Winter and summer.
HM: Then Rogers met Grandmother Agnes from the Stiletz tribe in Oregon.
ER : And she taught me we are all water babies. She really connected that in a strong way. She’s a grandmother of the 13 indigenous grandmothers and that’s when I really claimed my sacred relationship with regards to water.
HM: Research from the Aerospace Institute of the University of Stuttgart in Germany shows that water may have memory.
ER: Water is a crystalline structure, and as with other crystals, it imprints the memory of what it comes in contact with. There’s other really fascinating characteristics to water we’re just discovering.
HM: Rogers says she’s intrigued by the fact that based on number of molecules in a human body, we are 99% water.
ER: Really all of life is the creative expression of water. Every microbe, elephant and whale is there because of water. Truly we are water, we are water expressing itself as life. No water – no people. No water – no trees. No water – no alligators. No water – no beer!
HM: As a Water Guardian, Rogers has Co-Created an organization called ‘Loving Waters,’ with fellow Water Guardians Shelley Darling and Julie Armstrong. (More at: http://www.lovingwaters.life/council) Loving Waters seeks to educate people around the world about maintaining and healing their local watersheds. and the first question she asks everyone she meets is – What’s the name of the watershed where you live?
ER: A watershed in simplest form is a rain drop dropping onto the earth at its highest point, and following its track to the ocean. I’m on Squirrel Creek, but Squirrel Creek runs into the South Yuba, which runs into the Feather, which runs into the Sacramento, which runs into the California Delta, which then runs into the ocean. So usually a watershed is named by its largest branch. I’m really on the Sacramento watershed, but it helps to bring it to its smallest point.
HM: By bringing your watershed to its smallest point, you can better track your local waters’ overall health on 
its journey back to the ocean, because not only do we as individuals depend on our waters health, so does the entire planet. The truth is, there really is only ONE WATER. One body of water, all interconnected on earth.
ER: Water connects us all. It’s our common bond. We can fill out our life and world views with religion with politics, with our own personal ethics, but none of us can argue the importance of water in our lives. It surpasses all dogma. It is what connects us. It is what makes us one on this planet.
HM: Elizabeth Rogers and Loving Waters invite every human on earth to become a water guardian and to get involved with your local watersheds health. A step she says begins with LOVE.
ER: My vision of A Beautiful World is we have water at the center of everything.
HM: I’m Heather McElhatton – reporting from the Mississippi Watershed – and THIS is a beautiful world.
…brought to you with help from the pohlad family foundation.
LINKS
Loving Waters Website: http://www.lovingwaters.life/
Loving Waters Contact: LovingWaters.life@gmail.com
Music by Leweton Cultural Village and The Vanuatu Women’s Magical Water Music ceremony. More at: www.lewetonculturalexperience.com
