Good Evening, God
I LOVE stumbling across a new aspect of reality — especially one that seems so analogous.
Natural streams (One You and Mother Nature create) all have a Zone that goes from the bottom or the stream bed to the start of the ground water. This area averages 6-12 feet deep and can extend out even further to either side. This zone is filled with all kinds of bugs and creatures and fauna and flora constituting a sort of microbiome.
It has been called the streamʻs liver or guts. And just like our livers it helps clear up the toxins in the stream! It cleans out pollutants and helps to oxygenate the stream bed. This oxygenating is important. Fish eggs need a certain level of oxygen in the ground they are laid in — to survive.
WHO KNEW? Well, not us. For years we have been scraping streams out and cementing over their sides. Oh yes, and straightening them too. A straight stream is a FAST stream. One that carries a lot more silt that then has to be dredged out and carried away, Plus it eats away at the edges. And overflows.
The Thornton stream empties into Lake Washington in Seattle. Because it regularly flooded homes the project was able to buy up homes and create a more curvy path. These curves — plus logs and things — served to slow the stream. That meant more water sank into the ground water and there was less silt deposited in unwanted places.
The project was only for a small portion of the stream. It was approved in 2014 and it took a while to complete. But, since then the stream has not overflowed its banks and flooded. And by 2018 salmon had returned to spawn. Three to four years to return a damaging unhealthy stream to one where salmon could spawn. Thatʻs about how long it takes to bring dead industrial farmed soil back to “organic” health.
Sigh, what would it take to bring our civilization back to good health in 3-4 years? Is there a spiritual equivalent to the hyporheic zone? Well, maybe! But more on that later!
Story teller,
A Moment with God 
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