by Walt Clark
When I think about milestones, ten year milestones are an important marker. Whether it is celebrating multiple decades of marriage, working somewhere, or seeing a child’s 10th birthday, we think these moments are worth celebrating. Everyday people come to Mayyim Hayyim to mark milestones. Birthdays. Anniversaries. End of life. Transitions. They come to the water to mark moments.
The human body is supposed to regenerate all of its cells every 7-10 years. Essentially after each decade you are in a completely different body. When I look at myself compared to when I graduated high school, I look older and, at times, feel older with some pain, but I am still essentially the same person in my mind. I have shared memories with my past self, my personality is largely the same. I am little bit smarter and wiser (hopefully), but I am still me.
If our bodies are brand new every decade, what is the constant? Our neurons are the one constant in our body that don’t regenerate, but they change as we age, storing our memories and thoughts. But does our spirit live in just our neurons? If you seek the Divine, it is simply just the neurons? That doesn’t seem satisfying to me.
I don’t presume to know the answer. But I’ll offer this.
A milestone is a celebration and marking of something that has been created. A relationship, an event, or a life. We are marking the passage of time since creation happened. Creation on this planet ultimately came from water. It is the common thread in life. Every living organism uses it in some way and all life has sprung from it. The water we drink today is the same water our ancestors drank thousands of years ago.
Water is a constant across all religions as a tool for renewal and we use it throughout our entire lives. When we come to water, we are in a way coming into contact with a link in our own creation. So the question of how our spirit resides in us may be something we will never completely understand. But when we come to it, we are, in a way, coming back to our creation, as individuals, as a species, as a planet, as another chain in this universe, past, present, and future. The fact that we are here and we exist. We come to water to mark moments.
On a personal note, today is my last blog post as a staff member of Mayyim Hayyim. I want to publicly thank everyone who has supported me during my time at Mayyim Hayyim. From the mikveh guides, the board, and the entire Mayyim Hayyim staff, past and present. It has been a wonderful place to come to work the last 2 years and will be something I take with me forever.
Walton Clark was Mayyim Hayyim’s Office Manager and jack of all trades. He is a working keyboardist in Boston, playing Black American Music and leads the acid-funk outfit Roxo Gato as well as performing in a variety of groups. You can follow him on Twitter @walt_twitwalker and on Instagram @welaxer.