Everybody lives in a watershed, and most of us live in the valley of a large river. Geographers, and many indigenous myths, point to the river as the one that carves the valley, and shapes the surrounding slopes. In Gaillard, we live on the Arve, a word that’s so old the linguists say it pre-dates the Allobroges, the Celtic peoples of this region.
This month, the Arve is reclaiming its beds of gravel from winter, and covering them with muddy milky jade water, as the snows thaw. This is the time of shaping earth, of carving landscapes. Even as they flow through major cities, rivers continue to create our world – and sometimes destroy parts of it.
We can trivialise water by seeing it as something that washes us clean. Easter is a good season for recognising the creative power of water – and our opportunity to work with our local river. How green is my valley?
I see ERI site is not keeping up to date!!!
Have been looking at N17man to see iff that is still there – and it is!
Looking forward to meeting you and the gang in Cill Chiaráin.
Am still “Blogging”. Thanks for getting me started on that. It gives me something to be doing as well as helping my memory.
Hope all goes well in Europe. God bless you and your ministry.
Michael.
Hi Michael. Thanks for the comment. The ERI site should be up to date. I checked this morning and the new home page is there. Maybe you are looking an older version somewhere. I’ve not looked at Athgarvan in a while. MC keeps me posted on its latest musings. I no longer use Live Journal much myself. The ERI blog keeps me busy. I see you’re on Facebook now, too. What a guy!