Drip, drip, drip

I’m confessing a bad habit: I often drink only half glasses of water when I’m at home. I leave the half-drunk glass somewhere and when I remember it, I throw the water away and start afresh. Hubby joked a while ago about charging me for this as a contribution to the water bill he pays! But then it struck me — while I was in the shower, where else! — this is really wasteful — not of money (who cares, right!? 😉 ), but of resources.

Yes, it really did hit home while I was taking a shower. Because I was revelling in the hot water that is literally on tap. I was feeling grateful for the ease at which I can keep myself clean and the very fundamental joy that feelings of warm water on skin provoke. And I got to thinking about how for much of the world this is not even a luxury but a sheer impossibility. It’s for this reason that I usually keep my showers functional and brief — apart from a once a week luxuriating one as a treat.

But all those glasses of half-drunk water? Bah, I might as well not bother trying to save shower water if that’s how I behave! Funny how our brains latch onto one thing and don’t see the illogicality in the bigger picture. It’s not just me, right?

So here’s my commitment to finish drinking my water when I’ve poured out a full glass. Better for me and better for the planet if I drink what I’ve already poured rather than throwing it away and re-pouring.

Feeling grateful for the abundance of water (as I experience it in UK) reminded me of the rather cheesy Christian hymn we had to sing at primary school, although I wouldn’t choose to express it quite like this myself. Plus it’s raining now as I type and pattering noisily on the window pane!

Have you heard the raindrops drumming on the roof tops?
Have you heard the raindrops dripping on the ground?
Have you heard the raindrops splashing in the streams and
running to the rivers all around?
[Refrain:]
There’s water, water of life,
Jesus gives us the water of life;
there’s water, water of life,
Jesus gives us the water of life.