When I reflect and write about Eiseley's essay and the “magical element,” I hesitate. I think to myself, “What magic?”, and then I put pen to page. I dubiously choose a paddling pool to draw inspiration from, and unexpectedly, inspiration flows into me. As I sit here in this little 10-by-30-foot yard, the sky is filled with water flowing in gaseous form, dark patches of damp earth dot the yard, plants absorb scattered watering, and leaves from bushes and trees permeate the space. with a sense of humidity due to their foliage. As my senses attune to the humidity around me, I fill Braedon's artificial pond with water. I stare at the glittering surface, contemplating Eiseley's tale and that little bit of life source captured in the Brae pool. I understand why Eiseley thought the most abundant compound on the Earth's surface was mystical. Eiseley's essay on water begins from a reflective position, connecting past, present, and future through water. He connects his magical experiences to water, telling of when "...I lay in the floating position that left my face to the sky, and pushed myself away" (Eiseley 139) left his mind adrift, and “…this kind of curious absorption by water¬¬-the extension of form by osmosis…” (Eiseley 137) becomes the embodiment of water. He goes on to articulate his interpretation of being one with nature, geology, history and archaeology, through water. All his reveries are provoked by the sight of a stagnant pool on a roof. He only feels connected to life through water that water is able to dredge up its past and spark speculation about its future. He speaks of our current evolutionary phase as a passing point on the path to the future, he writes “…I saw myself passing—……in the midst of the. sheet……nothing other than the continuous torrent of concepts across the page. The turgid flow of blood flowing through my water-made veins is magical. The birth channel 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 surface because water is magical. This just ripples the surface for some of the ways water is magical. My ten minutes of water observation gives me the reveries of a lifetime and represents a sentence from a page in my thirty-two-year-old book. The ultimate magic of water is that it is a billion-year-old book, telling an infinite story and causing an infinite boil of insights. Bibliography Eiseley, Loren “The Flow of the River” from Fifty Great Essays 2nd ed. 2002 Penguin Academics of New York.