Taken in response to todays photo 101 challenge – ‘Water’

Ok, I’ve got lots of great photos of water. Still lakes, calm blue seas, or sea with white horse waves skipping on it’s surface. There are waterfalls and swimming pools, ponds and puddles, but none of them really conveyed what I wanted to say.

We’re always being told that, to achieve happiness, we should be grateful for what we have and not worry about what we don’t have.  The one thing that brings this home to me every day is that I am lucky enough to have clear, clean water, on tap, to use as I want, how I want. Not just cold water, but hot water too.  I can shower and wash my hair, have clean clothes everyday, I can drink it neat, or boil it to make tea, I can grow things to eat, and hey, grow things just ‘cos they look pretty too. I have a toilet that flushes all the waste away, out of my sight and mind. I have a pond teeming with beautiful fish, yes, just for my pleasure.

I could go on, but you’re probably thinking ‘yeah, yeah, we know all that, get on with it…’, but we should always, always, remember that this is a luxury, there are thousands, millions probably, of people in this world who still don’t have access to clean water, or if they do, they have to carry it miles in containers to their homes. Do you know that around 500,000 children die every year from disease caused by drinking contaminated water? (see WaterAid for further info)

Whilst I enjoy a glass of wine (or two) I hope I never forget that I am privileged to be able to have a glass of water now and then, straight from the tap.  Cheers!