Grandma Agnes Baker Pilgrim: Thank Water for Your Life

A Global Message and Call to Action from Grandma Agnes Baker Pilgrim

Story By Chip Richards

Honored as a “Living Treasure” by her tribe, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz, and as a “Living Cultural Legend” by the Oregon Council of the Arts, Grandmother Agnes Baker-Pilgrim (or “Grandma Aggie” as she is affectionately known) is an Ambassador for Mother Earth who has touched the lives of people from many lands, helping us remember sacred ways of living that we came here to share as people of the Earth.

The following is a message from Grandma Aggie to the world, in the lead up to World Water Day 2015:

I’ve been talking about Water around the world for about 15 years.

The Creator called upon me to be a Voice for the Voiceless and for a long time I didn’t know what that meant. But then I hit upon that one of those, that needs our voice, is Water.

And spirit said, all humans came from water in the amniotic sac of our mother’s womb and that Water is our first medicine. We are to take care of it and guard it . Not just for now but for seven generations to come in the unborn.

Water is very sacred. We are all born in water. We have an obligation to take care of it.

75% of our bodies are made of water. There’s water in our blood, water in our tears, water in our spit, and water in our brain. The brain has zillions of cells and each one needs to be coated with water. The elements that are in good water are what we need to oil our joints. If you’re an elder like me you listen, so you can have those elements flowing through your body.

And I found out water can hear. So talk to the water inside of you and thank it for your life. When I use water — whether I’m drinking it or cooking with it, taking a shower, washing my hands, washing my clothes, brushing my teeth or flushing the toilet… Wherever I use water, I bless it.

I believe that if you do a ritual with water every morning and thank it for your life – even if you do that for two weeks – you will find a difference in your body.

Here I am going on 90 years. Water keeps me agile and strong and well because when I drink my water I tell it, “I love you! Do whatever you need to do to take care of my body. You know your job and I will always bless you.

When I’m standing in the shower, “Bless me. I love you.”

When I’m driving my car over a bridge of water anywhere in the world I say, “Bless you water. Thank you for all that lives in you and drink from your banks.” And I thank it in that way.

When I’m in an airplane and I look out the window and see lakes and rivers and oceans, I bless the water. I thank it for taking care of the habitat and the whales and all those that are out in the water. Us humans, us two-leggeds are the caretakers of this planet. It is our job.

A long time ago the Beloved Creator woke me in the Dreamtime and he said, “Go and be this Voice for the water. Tell everyplace you go about water, that it is our first medicine.”

Everybody has to take care of the water. Not for the adults so much, but for the children that are going to come after you and for the next seven generations of the unborn.

Water should be everyone’s concern. Without water we all die. All life dies. Water is precious.

I pray that whoever sees this, that you too will take care of your Mother Earth wherever you live and you will care for the water that surrounds you and the water that is within you.

Thank water for your life.

Story by Chip Richards the Creative Director of UPLIFT. To learn more about Chip click here.