Introduction:
The Sioux nation, one of the indigenous peoples from what is now known as North America, have many proverbs, and many of them reflect on how balance is struck in nature – they do not see themselves as apart from nature but a part of nature. This particular proverb struck me deeply and I was inspired to write.
—
“The frog does not drink up the pond where it lives”.
It knows — the gift of water is not to own, but to share.
A mirror for wings. A cradle for reeds. A song to call the moon.
We forget.
We cup the world with grasping hands, spilling what we cannot keep.
We drain the pond and call it progress.
We burn the forest and call it light.
We sell these lies
until we believe them.
The frog still sings — even when the pond is shrinking, even when the land grows thin.
It sings of balance, of knowing enough.
It sings a lament, of the truth we’ve buried beneath our concrete dreams.
The water we waste is the breath we steal from our children.
What song will they sing when the frogs are gone?