Where We Are Drawn
A few years ago, my sister and her husband bought a house in the countryside that had been vacant for a while and whose well had gone dry. Rather than pay to tap into the county water line that was two miles away, they decided to dig another well. The question was where. The neighbors down the road told them to contact the Water Witch, a man well known in the area for finding underground water on your property.
After researching their options and talking to contractors in the area, it seemed all roads did, indeed, lead to the Water Witch. Despite the playful title, the man is highly esteemed by the local water authorities and the county for his successful track record.
My sister called him, and the elderly gentleman came to their house at the appointed day and time and walked the property with his dousing rod. He found three places for them to dig, one of which was his personal recommendation, but if for any reason they had trouble getting the equipment for digging the well to that spot, he showed them the other two.
They organized a well digging, and eureka! They found water at the number one spot. Three cheers to the Water Witch!
When the water was tested and found potable, they installed a new reservoir in their basement and they were finally able to remove their “camp shower” and stop buying carloads of water from the bulk surplus stores.
Now, reasons for well dry-up are multifarious, and include soil consistency, mineral deposits, rust, overuse, drought, and, curiously enough, under-use. Imagine water underground, surging, flowing, trickling, seeping—doing its waterly thing. Over time, sediment can build up, preventing slow-moving water from flowing in certain directions, causing it to reroute. But by drawing water out, a flow can be created that keeps water running toward that access point. Much like people, water goes where it’s drawn.
If you’re like me, drawn to writing, then write. The more you do it, the more it flows. From further and further out, the words and ideas come. Sometimes they come out lackluster and you have to toss them in your own slush pile to be read and fixed later, the same as sometimes the water comes out non-potable and you save it to water your plants. Either way, your efforts are not wasted; the very act of drawing out the words helped some distant tributaries to redirect. Keep it up. They’re on their way to you.
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This blog was originally titled “The Water Witch & the Flow of Distant Tributaries,” and was posted in 2014 at finelinebooks.wordpress.com, as part of my Project365, my year of daily blogging project.
