Taking the Healing Waters and Breathing the Healing Air

 Well, darn it all!  I'd thought the threat of Covid was basically over, but just to be safe I got both a Covid vaccine and a flu shot on Sunday, October 18.  When I started to feel achy and tired the following Tuesday, I thought it might be a reaction to the shots.  But then I felt worse on Wednesday, with a stuffy nose and dry cough, followed by chills and shakes and abject fatigue on Thursday, with sudden loss of sense of smell and taste. Uh oh!  Got Covid test. Proved positive. Luckily, there's a medicine called Paxlovid that moderates the direst symptoms, and so it did. After five days on Paxlovid, my sense of smell returned, and by Thursday, Oct. 29, a new Covid test showed no more virus remained enough to detect. But I still felt kind of sickly, so tired I just wanted to go back to bed. 

But oh, the day was warm and bright.  Maybe a brief walk outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine would be more reviving than another nap. And lucky for me, I live in Saratoga Springs, a city famous for its mineral springs that are famous for promoting health.  So off to Saratoga Spa State Park I went.  A walk along the turbulent Geyser Creek and some quaffs of the mineral-rich spring waters there should help me feel much better.

The trail along the rushing creek looked very inviting, with colorful autumn foliage brightening the banks, and the Island Spouter atop its mound of mineral accretions was sending its sparkling spray skyward. The name "Geyser Creek" was no doubt inspired by the mineral-water spring that spouts from the center of this island, an enormous limey accretion called a "tufa." But this is not, in fact, a geyser, since geysers obtain their energy from geothermal heat. Better referred to as a "spouter," this skyward-shooting spring obtains its energy from a subterranean buildup of carbon dioxide gasses. The water is quite cold all year.

There are signs posted along the creek that explain the geology of the mineral waters that flow from springs here:

There is genuine scientific evidence that turbulent waters like a waterfall or crashing waves or a rushing creek or a spritzing spouter can help to promote good health.  Somehow, the tossing of droplets into the air creates a negative ionization in the air that has been demonstrated to enhance not only our feelings of well-being, but to also improve our body's immune system in measurable ways. I made a conscious effort to fill my lungs fully as I walked along the creek.

An even larger dome of mineral deposits lay just a bit further upstream, caused by the waters that spout from Orenda Spring high up on the bluff.

This creekside trail ends where the Geyser Creek flows through a culvert.  More rushing water here.  I stopped and took some deep breaths of the negatively ionized air at this site before climbing a steep stairway up the hillside, to where I knew I would find the Orenda Spring.

It was here that I filled a cup and drank deeply of the cold sparkling waters of the Orenda Spring. 

The word "Orenda" means a divine force believed by the Iroquois people to be the source of all positive human accomplishment.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if all the peoples of the world could be so transformed by drinking the waters of this spring?  One could only hope! Especially during this time of political contentiousness and genuine danger to our nation and its people.

And may that divine force help me to fully recover from the weakening effects of this illness.   I do believe I feel better already.