#robert macfarlane

The language of hydrological governance refers to rivers, streams and lakes as ‘waterbodies’. To the forty thousand recognized waterbodies in England, Wales and Scotland should be added another 65 million or so – for every human is, of course, a waterbody. Water flows in and through us. Running, we are rivers. Seated, we are pools. Our brains and hearts are ­three-­quarters water, our skin is ­two-­thirds water; even our bones are watery. We were swimmers before we were walkers, slow-turning like breath-divers in the dark flotation tank of the womb.

Words make worlds. In English, we 'it' rivers, trees, mountains, oceans, birds and animals: a mode of address that reduces them to the status of stuff, and distinguishes them from human persons...I prefer to speak of rivers who flow and forests who grow. In English, we speak of a river in the singular. But 'river' is one of the great group nouns, containing multitudes. In English, there is no verb 'to river'. But what could be more of a verb than a river?

When viewed in deep time, things come alive that seemed inert. New responsibilities declare themselves. A conviviality of being leaps to mind and eye. The world becomes eerily various and vibrant again. Ice breathes. Rock has tides. Mountains ebb and flow. Stone pulses. We live on a restless Earth.