Raise your glasses to World Water Day!

Today, March 22nd, is World Water Day.  So, pause for a moment and raise a glass of nice, clean water and appreciate it.

It’s something I don’t think about that much while I’m home.  It’s just there.  In a pink Britta filter in my fridge, flowing freely from faucets in my kitchen and bathroom.  It flushes my toilet, rains down on me in the shower, cleans my dirty dishes and clothes, waters my plants and fills my dog’s water bowl.  On a chilly spring day like today, it falls from the sky, slowly turning the grass green and bringing the trees back to life after a long, cold winter.  In a few months, it will be a source of entertainment as we retreat to beautiful Lake Michigan for swimming, sailing, waterskiing… In short, Chicago is pretty blessed when it comes to this seemingly unlimited resource.

But, when I travel, water is something I’m constantly thinking about.  Where can I find clean, drinkable water?  How much will it cost?  Can I manage to clean all of these clothes with a single bucket full?  One only needs to leave the country to realize what millions of people around the world already know: water is life.  Simply put, we cannot exist without water.  Once we wrap our heads around that statement, let me take it one step further.  Dirty water is the #1 killer in the world.  Not in the US, in the world.  To learn more about the importance of providing clean drinking water to developing countries, I encourage you to check out the charity: water website.  And to learn more about my love affair with water, read My 2L.