I don't know if this makes sense in an intellectual way...but this image works for me..

fresh rain...

as in a light fresh rain on your face...something so "alive" about that.

does it? know its source?

I ask about consciousness, because it seems to have fast become the new buzz word, and maybe a little dogmatic in the free-thinking community. I've decided to forgo using the word, as a personal choice, to get behind the meaning of the word. What is consciousness? "knows its source"? A lot of people don't know the source of their water, and that's something vital that keeps us alive. I prefer the term 'intelligence', because atoms, droplets, people, move about in a way that follows particular patterns. What is commonly defined as 'life' possesses DNA, a form of intelligence in the body that governs how the body is kept alive and constantly maintained. But DNA is a collection of molecules, and of that: atoms, which have somehow found a way to store information, and reproduce the pattern. Maybe this is the consciousness you are referring to, but what then of 'unconsciousness', because I can personally attest that there are some things I am unconscious of: my awareness can only juggle so much information, all the rest is 'beneath my notice'. If aliveness, then, is defined as 'consciousness', then I am only about 1% alive, even as I strive to be as conscious of as many things as I can. "Intelligence" is 'the ability to make connections', and as to that, I think all matter can do that: relate. This is why I think John Lennon had a good point when he said, "all we need is love"; there is something fundamental about relationship that I think can span the whole universe, and poetically be described as 'love'.