Our Lady of the Waters

The Monsoons have come at last, 3 blessed days of the Thunder Beings rushing in, the Katchinas dancing in the skies, and then the streets and the arroyos run with the blessing of water.  I remembered NUMINA - OUR CHANGING EARTH, the 2013 play by Ann Waters and her community in Willits, California, which I was privileged to create masks for.   Photos are courtesy Jerri Jo Idarius.

Lady of the Desert Spring

Our lady of the Arroyos, 

Come to us,

Come to us, 

O come to us.

Nuestra Señora de las Aguas  

Mother of the cottonwoods, 

the Palos Verdes

Snake and mallow

ocotillo and saguaro

night-blooming Cereus

night-roaming  coyote 

red tail hawk and la paloma

two-legged, four-legged, 

and those who fly

Hear our prayers 

O desert spring

Hear our prayers 

for those who suffer thirst, 

for the parched earth. 

Spread your mantle of green and turquoise, 

your bright artery of life, 

upon this empty riverbed,

upon this ancient aquifer, 

down the arroyos

of our dreams.