While doing the contemplative practice for Lesson 8, I really got thinking more about water and the demand for it around the world. I never thought much about what it would be like to not have water because I grew up with a seemingly endless amount of it. It has been unnerving to me to think about how many people die from dehydration or starvation because they don’t have water for their crops, to drink, or to cook with. Yet, even though it is unnerving, it is also absolutely amazing that people throughout the world have figured out how to collect water so that they have enough to live off of. I have taken this for granted most of my life and seeing the different ways that people get their water has made me realize how important water is to our survival. It has always been obvious that it is vital to our existence, but it has not been obvious that not all people have it. I believe that this is a sort of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ issue that we all need to be aware of. If we are able to see how important the water really is, maybe we could start saving more of it. It has got me thinking of ways to cut down on water usage and one thing that I came up with specifically was doing less laundry and thinking about the water it takes to grow some of the foods I eat. The former is very simple and pretty easy to accomplish, but the latter will take some research on my part. The biggest thing I want to focus on with that is looking at where the food comes from and seeing different water saving farming practices.
