As I think and write about Eiseley's essay and the “magic element,” I hesitate. I say to myself: “What magic? ”, then I put the pen to the page. I dubiously choose a children's pool to take inspiration from and unexpectedly inspiration flows through me. As I sit here in this small 10 x 30 foot yard, the sky is filled with flowing soda water, dark patches of damp earth speckle the yard, the plants soak up their scattered watering and the leaves from the bushes and trees permeate the space. with a feeling of humidity coming from their foliage. As my senses adjust to the humidity around me, I fill Braedon's artificial pond with water. I stare at the glistening surface, contemplating Eiseley's tale and the small piece of life source caught in Brae's pool. I understand why Eiseley thought the most abundant compound on the Earth's surface was mystical. Eiseley's essay on water takes a reflexive stance, connecting past, present, and future through water. He connects his own magical experiences to water, recounting the moment when "...I lay down in the floating position that left my face to the sky and moved away" (Eiseley 139), he left his mind to drift, and “…this curious kind of absorption by water¬¬—the extension of form by osmosis…” (Eiseley 137), he becomes an embodiment of water. He continues by articulating his interpretation of unity with nature, geology, history and archeology, via water. All his daydreams are provoked by the sight of a stagnant swimming pool on a roof. Not only does he feel connected to life through water, but he gives us a glimpse that water is capable of unearthing its past and sparking speculation about its future. He speaks of our current phase of evolution as a passing point on the path to the future, he writes: “…I saw myself passing through……… in the middle of a paper……something other than the continuous torrent of concepts. across the page. The flow of turgid blood flowing through my water-made veins is magical. The birth canal of original life, the place where earth meets water is magical. The potential for life wherever there is water is magical. The feeling of being connected to everything through water is magical. Life's best memories can resurface because water is magical. This just scratches the surface on some of the ways water is magical. My ten minutes of water observation brings me the daydream of a lifetime, and it represents a one-page sentence from my thirty-two-year-old tome. The ultimate magic of water is that it is a billion-year-old book, it tells a never-ending story and causes an endless churning of insight.BibliographyEiseley, Loren “The Flow of the River » from Fifty Great Essays 2nd ed. 2002 Penguin Academics in New York.