Nicole Betancourt Director's Statement

While filming and editing “Sing the Water Song,” I felt the wisdom of our ancestors and grandmothers, the water in our bodies, and the water in the earth. We hope that the song and video will awaken in women our innate, powerful connection to water – a connection that we are born with, but often forget as we grow up. Working on this project has given me a new source of energy and healing for my own chronic illness.

I believe that celebrating our bodies as part of nature is a perspective that can help us to heal the earth and ourselves.  There is so much grief and fear over the destruction of species, rainforests, and water. That fear can power change, but it can also be overwhelming, freezing us in a state of inaction. This video and the practice of singing the song offers a path to engagement without paralysis by meditating with a sense of wonder on the beauty and vitality of the water all around us and in our bodies. This most fundamental substance that makes up our bodies, comes from the stars and is older than life on earth. Through the Water Song we can choose to be with water in gratitude and love and from that perspective, our actions will shift.

When I go to the ocean now I still grieve for the beaches of ten years ago that were free of plastic, but I don’t hold on to that feeling. I pick up handfuls of plastic as I walk along the beach, each piece removed like a prayer, an act of love and connection with the beauty of the beach, the tides, the sea. I no longer collect shells. I leave the beautiful and remove the toxic. Once you feel empathy for water, preserving it is an easy extension of your being. It feels good, natural, loving to save the water not with fear, but with joy.

I invite you to have your own experience with the video, with the Water Song. Sing it in the shower, by the river, or in the rain.  Remember you are singing for yourself and for the water.