Wasn’t it Einstein who had his Eureka moment while sitting relaxing in the bath, and working out the theory of displacement? (or am I confusing my scientists?) Anyway, they say the bath is often a place where ‘a ha’ moments occur, and having just gotten out of the bath I wanted to share my own ‘a ha’ moment. It’s nothing original, and plenty of people will have thought it before, but it was quite a profound stream of thoughts for a quiet Sunday night.
As I laid there, holding my hands out of the water with fingers drooping down, watching each water droplet form and then fall off my fingertips, I had a sudden thought about’ oneness’. You see, I read so many articles and books that talk about ‘oneness’ but it never seems to be very tangible, yet here I was in the bath, having a direct experience of it: as each water droplet formed and fell into the water, it occurred to me (and this is obvious but I had not really thought about it before now) that as soon as it fell in, there was suddenly no droplet anymore, no defining boundaries to it or ways to identify that droplet from the rest of the bath water. It had, in essence, gone back to its source. Where was the droplet? It was no more, but yet it still was, for it was part of the rest of the water.
Drip drip drop...
Also, as I watched each one drop off my fingers, and cause small ripples out across the surface, it occurred to me that each drop of water was causing an effect, so although it was ultimately all one, an individual drop could cause motion. And then as I pulled the plug, 99 per cent of the water was to rush down the plug hole to meet with an even larger body of water, which in turn would lead out to the sea, thus returning all the water droplets to whence they came. The other one per cent, I thought, would end up on my towel, which would eventually evaporate and into the air, ending up in the clouds and then one day falling as rain back into the oceans.
And this led me to another thought; we like to give names to things, including the oceans, but really we are only naming areas of water: they are really all one body of water. There is no exact end and beginning to the Atlantic Ocean (apart from where it meets land, of course) but my point is that it is not separate from any of the other oceans, as water is free to flow from one to the other. This means that technically, a water particle from the North Sea, could end up in the Pacific (depending on currents and weather and probably loads of other scientific stuff). But it’s possible.
We are all one
Anyway, where am I going with all this? I suppose my ultimate thought was that if all water is one, then we humans are also all one. When we die, out bodies decompose and go back to the earth. Like the water droplets, we can each cause ripples with our individual lives, i.e we can all make an impact whether large or small, but when we die we all go back to source: our bodies to the earth, and our spirits back to who knows where – source, universe, God, whatever you want to call it. And, every single person is relevant and important. For while one water drop may not be able to do much on its own, it could be the water drop that finally causes a roof to collapse, or be the final droplet that causes a stalactite and a stalagmite to join up, or a drop that nourishes one tiny seed and causes a plant to grow. You just don’t know how one little drop of water is going to affect things. This is the same with people. Ultimately we are all made of the same thing, and we are all one, but while we are in our individual bodies we can make a huge impact on the lives of others. One person might be responsible for writing a book that changes people’s outlook on life; one more person added to a group might cause enough momentum for change (either positive or negative); one person might be responsible for starting a revolution. You just never know.
So, that was my profound thinking for a Sunday night bath! It’s certainly helpful to remember that we are all connected, as this can lead to a greater sense of community, and more responsibility for our actions, as they will always have an impact on others.
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