Tuolumne Meadows is awakening to a later summer this year, due to the heavy winter snow.  I was up there with Ron this past week, enjoying the strong flow of the Tuolumne River behind Pothole Dome.  The water level rises during the height of the day, then lowers as the snowmelt upstream slows in the cooler evening air.  I was struck by how this is like a daily pulse of the river.  And this daily pulse occurs within the annual pulse of the river as it goes through the seasons.  The river responds to the position of the planet and the sun, and it is one with the universe.  It will keep this up long after we are gone.

Sitting along the swirling pools created by the cascades is a mesmerizing experience.  I was lost in the appreciation of taking part in the pulse of the earth, then feeling my own pulse, and thinking of the relationship.  Our economy thinks of water as a commodity, but life is not a commodity.  We are all individuals passing through the earth, like the water pulsing through its cycles.  If we can develop and nurture the thought of unity and healing that water brings, we may find the art of appreciating life. 

I know that this is a distant thought for our youth caught up in the immediate culture of their technology devices and the constant struggle for economic survival.  But we all have just one life to live, and not much time to waste.  I developed a new appreciation of the mission of Sacred Rok – to support youth in nature, helping them learn to respect nature and through that to respect themselves.

- Kenji Hakuta