A Drop of Water

One morning in Maine, a tiny drop of water squeezed out of a leaf. It rested there, reflecting the early morning sun. As the air warmed, the water drop felt itself rising into the atmosphere. No longer liquid, it was transformed into invisible water drifted upward. The leaf where it had lain seemed to grow smaller and smaller until it merged with the rest of the landscape into a patch work quilt of brown and green and blue.

Even though it was summer, the air high above the earth was cold. The water droplet condensed from vapor back to liquid again. It joined with billions of other droplets to create a cloud. A strong wind blew in other clouds until they were all bunched together like a puffy flock of sheep. After a while the clouds started jostling each other. Soon they were knocking one another about like billiard balls on a pool table. A bolt of lightning slashed from one cloud to another. The bang of thunder that followed announced the start of a fierce rainstorm. The water drop crashed to earth and fell into the Crooked River, which carried it, swirling and tumbling, into a large lake.

The sky cleared. The water drop slowed down and floated to the surface of Sebago Lake (which to the Sokokis Indians had meant "Big Stretch of Waters"). It felt the tickle of a water strider bug tiptoeing across it, hunting for smaller insects. The tiny pads of the water strider's feet barely dented the water's surface.

The water drop drifted along with the slow currents in the lake. Suddenly it was hammered by a broad, flat tail. It was a beaver alerting the other beavers of danger. The beaver's tail was many tools in one. It was a rudder to help steer the animal as it swam, a trowel for laying down mud for its lodge, and a drum for sounding an alarm. Drop of Water in an Ice Cube

For five years, the water drop continued its slow journey southward along the shores of Sebago Lake. Every year from January to April it was locked in place as ice that gleamed on the surface of the lake. Deep below, other water drops at the bottom of the lake never froze.

The water drop was often swallowed by a fish and almost instantly released through its gills. Oxygen dissolved in the water passed into the blood vessels that laced the gills. Sebago Lake was an ideal home for trout and landlocked salmon because they could get lots of oxygen from the clear, cold water. They fed on the rainbow smelt that lived in the lake.

Occasionally the water drop cradled salamander or frog eggs until they hatched in an aquatic nursery along the shore. Here the roots of a water lily or an arrowhead would often latch onto the water droplet. Then its journey was slowed even more while the water drop crept up the stem of the plant, pulled by other water molecules, to finally emerge through the broad leaf.

The water drop finally neared the southern end of Sebago Lake. Suddenly it was drawn into a large pipe 85 feet below the surface of the lake. It was swept along on a whirlwind journey that carried it 20 miles in 24 hours. It surfaced in a toilet bowl in Portland. So this was what came of all those years of slogging through Sebago Lake?! There was a flush and a rush as the water in the bowl swirled down and was on its way again. This time the drop of water ended up in a sewage treatment plant where it was released into Casco Bay.

This water drop had visited the sea many times before. In fact, it had taken countless journeys that had all eventually ended at the sea. From the time the earth had formed, cooled, and created water, the drop had been circulating through the atmosphere, across the earth or under the ground, through streams, ponds, lakes, estuaries, and oceans in an endless cycle. Drop of Water in a Toilet Bowl

Unlike living things, water does not die. It changes again and again from vapor to liquid to ice and back again. This drop of water may have quenched the thirst of a Tyrannosaurus rex. The story of our drop of water has no ending it just goes on and on. Perhaps biography isn't really the right word for its life story. Perhaps soap opera would be a better title.


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