Water Cycle

Imagine being just one tiny, shimmering droplet in an ocean so vast it seems to have no end. For ages, that was my world—a deep, blue, swirling dance with billions of my brothers and sisters. Then, one day, a warm, golden feeling spread through me. The sun's rays reached down, tickling me until I felt lighter than air. I began to rise, leaving the salty sea behind, becoming so light and clear that I was completely invisible. I floated upward, a silent passenger on a current of warm air, joining countless others on a grand adventure into the sky. From this incredible height, the world was a breathtaking map. I saw rivers that looked like silver threads weaving through a quilt of green forests and golden fields. Cities were just tiny clusters of gray specks, and mountains were jagged wrinkles on the Earth's skin. Together, we gathered, huddling close for comfort in the cool, thin air. We transformed from invisible vapor into a magnificent, billowy shape—a great, white floating island in the endless blue sea of the sky. I am the planet's heartbeat, its traveler, and its life-giver. You can call me the Water Cycle.

For thousands of years, humans watched me with wonder and confusion. They saw rain fall from the sky and rivers rush to the sea, but they couldn't see the connection. It was a puzzle that tickled the minds of the greatest thinkers. Around 350 BCE, a thoughtful Greek philosopher named Aristotle sat watching the world, just as I was watching him. He noticed how the sun warmed the damp earth and guessed, quite brilliantly, that this heat must be lifting me into the air. He was on the right track, but he couldn't imagine the full scale of my journey. He, like many others, believed that most of the water in rivers bubbled up from vast, mysterious oceans hidden deep underground. The full truth remained a secret for nearly two thousand more years. During the Renaissance, a genius named Leonardo da Vinci was obsessed with me. He would spend hours sketching the way I tumbled in a waterfall or swirled in an eddy, trying to capture my energy on paper. He saw that I was in constant motion, but the complete circle still eluded him. The big breakthrough, the moment the puzzle pieces finally clicked into place, came in the 1670s. Two exceptionally curious men in France, Pierre Perrault and Edme Mariotte, decided to stop guessing and start measuring. Perrault painstakingly measured all the rain and snow that fell over the course of three years in the valley of the Seine River. Then, he calculated the amount of water flowing in the river itself. When he compared the numbers, the answer was astonishing. The precipitation that fell from the sky was more than enough to account for all the water in the river. There was no need for mysterious underground oceans. For the first time, humans had proof that I was a closed loop, a perfect, self-sustaining system. My journey finally had a map, and it had four main stages. It begins with Evaporation, when the sun's energy turns me from a liquid into a gas and lifts me into the atmosphere. Next comes Condensation, where I cool down and gather with others to form clouds. When we become too heavy to float any longer, I fall back to Earth as Precipitation—rain, snow, sleet, or hail. Finally, there is Collection, where I gather in rivers, lakes, and oceans, ready to begin my great adventure all over again.

My colossal journey, which spans the entire globe and has continued for billions of years, is also deeply personal. It's happening right beside you, and even inside you, every single moment. I am in the cool glass of water you drink to quench your thirst. I am the lifeblood of the fruits and vegetables on your plate, pulled up from the soil through their roots. I am the moisture in the very air you breathe. The molecules that make up my form today have seen more history than you can imagine. They tumbled over the backs of dinosaurs, nourished the giant ferns of ancient forests, and filled the wells of Roman cities. My travels are powerful enough to carve the Grand Canyon out of solid rock, gentle enough to form a single, perfect snowflake, and essential enough to make all life on this planet possible. My journey is a never-ending promise to keep our world alive and beautiful. Every time you see a rainbow after a storm or watch a snowflake melt on your glove, you are seeing a part of my story. And you are a part of it, too.