Photo from Summer Monsoon by Gretchen E. Henderson (Tucson, AZ).

FIELD NOTES ON WATER

runoff from your watershed

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52 Questions for 52 Weeks: Reflections for the Year Ahead

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1. Locate yourself in relation to a body of water. By what name(s) do you call this water?
2. Trace the water that you drink to its source.
3. Can you draw the boundaries of your watershed?
4. How many feet above sea level are you?
5. Where is the nearest ocean, and when is high tide?
6. When will be the next full moon?
7. What time are sunrise and sunset today? Where does the sun meet your horizon?
8. Find the North Star by night—or, by day, the direction of north.
9. From what direction do storms tend to come?
10. Where does rainwater from your roof go?
11. What was the amount of annual rainfall last year?
12. What forms of water (e.g., rain, snow, ice) do you encounter?
13. Where does gray water versus black water go from your home?
14. What is the composition of soil under your feet?
15. How far would you need to dig to reach water?
16. What spring wildflower is among the first to bloom here?
17. Name three native edible plants in your vicinity. What are their growing seasons?
18. Name two “invasive” species in your vicinity. When and how did they arrive?
19. Name four birds in your area. Are they migratory, or do they stay year-round?
20. When did you or your family migrate to this place? From where did your ancestors come?
21. How has your history and that of your family been shaped by water?
22. Does your memory of this place precede your lifetime, and how?
23. Who were previous inhabitants in this region, and how did they sustain themselves?
24. How many people currently live in your watershed?
25. How does water in your region assert force of life (for instance, by extremes, when was your last water event: a flood or a drought, Day Zero or …)?
26. Where is the nearest earthquake fault, and when did it last shift?
27. What geological processes shaped the landscape around you?
28. What geological or other natural features of your watershed have been considered sacred, now or in the past?
29. Beyond survival, what significance does water carry for you (culturally, spiritually, economically, politically, or otherwise)?
30. How are natural resources, including water, economically valued or extracted where you live?
31. In what ways is water represented around you? How does water flow—converge or diverge—through science, literature, art, and other bodies of knowledge?
32. How do you consider the shape and substance of your body related to bodies of water (e.g., aquifer, stream, river, lake, ocean)?
33. How much of your body consists of water? What percentage of the body of the Earth is water?
34. From where is your home’s energy, electricity or otherwise, generated?
35. When was the last time fire burned through the nearest wilderness, and where was that?
36. What sources of pollution inhabit the air that you breathe?
37. What species used to live here that have gone extinct, and how long ago did they die?
38. What former bodies of water used to exist in your region, but no longer do? Did they leave an imprint?
39. In recent years, did the answer(s) to any question(s) above change, why and how?
40. Did any previous question(s) elicit hope or fear, or some other emotion, or no emotion at all? How do your emotions relate to the reality of others?
41. In what ways do you interact with water? How much water do you use daily?
42. How is your life enhanced by water? In what ways does water bring you joy or pleasure?
43. Do you suffer from any issue related to water, quality or scarcity, or something else?
44. Who do you know (a loved one, a stranger, another species) who suffers because of an issue related to water? How does suffering shape you, directly or indirectly?
45. In your region, what projections about water have been made for ten, twenty, and fifty years?
46. In the past, what plant forms dominated your surrounding landscape, 100 years ago and 10,000 years ago?
47. What places on other continents share similar characteristics (e.g., temperature, rainfall, vegetation) to where you live?
48. If you were to share a story about a body of water about which you care, what body of water would you choose? How would you tell their story, in words or by other means?
49. How do you listen to water?
50. What are three small acts that you can do, here and now, to care for water? How do these small acts reflect your hopes for the future of water?
51. What other questions might you add here?
52. How will you live today?

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Please add more questions.

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From "Field Notes on Water: Runoff from Your Watershed" by Gretchen E. Henderson, Life in the Tar Seeps: A Spiraling Ecology from a Dying Sea (2023): adapted and expanded from Peter Warshall's "Watershed Awareness Exercise" (1976) that has evolved over years into variations (including "The Big Here Quiz" by Kevin Kelly, 2005). This expanded adaptation by GEH offers 52 questions for 52 weeks: as a water reflection for the year ahead.