The Word at the Edge of the World

"Because it's through water that we bring children into this world, it's through water that our families live..."  In my tradition, the sacred word is so often spoken and received at the edge, on the margin, in the wilderness.  Eric Thiermann's short film is like scripture for the eye, for the heart.  Here is the sacred word: wind whipping flags, cold drifts of snow, resolute water protectors at that edge.  In the film, I hear a sacred word, a transformative and holy word: embodied and then spoken by Ladonna Brave Bull Allard.  "In my culture, we go four days without food and water, and you know on that third day when you lip sticks to the top of your gums and all you can do is dream about that water and you want to taste that water; and on the fourth day when you first get to taste that water--when your body is dying because there is no water--you know how precious water is."  To hear this word, to taste it--we must somehow travel to Standing Rock, to the edge, to the wilderness.  It is there we hear the angel of life.  Speaking truth.  Inviting repentance.  Baptizing.