"The cure for anything is salt water- sweat, tears or the sea." ~ Isak Dinesen. Hemingway said to "...write the truest sentence that you know." I've spent the last several days contemplating where and when I feel safe. After my father's death, this is now my luxury. A new enchanted world of safety, opening before me. I have always felt at home in the depths, below the surface, holding my breath when the thoughts fall away and my body slips easily through the water column, like a memory of being in utero. Warm. At peace. Water, the most divine of hugs by nature herself. For many years I lost the ability to cry. Bravery, courage, staring pain in the face, I refused to yield. It was a habit to release, that fell away like a dam crumbling, the river set free at last. And now tears are a great gift, the pearls that fall and fall in grace and feeling for the beauty of each moment here, alive, breathing. It is hard to feel; it is hard not to feel. Surface to depth, depth to surface, alchemy of the gods: as above, so below. My goal is harmony. My goal is strength. My goal is giving to others. Home in the eyes of friends, new and old, and still to meet. Peace in surrender. And yet you who have lived through the hardest moments and survived know: safety is mostly a superstition. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. (To paraphrase Helen Keller.) A new dawn. A new opportunity. A watery dream before waking. You carry the depths inside you. It is where the journey begins and ends. In the essence, the soul, in the sea. The primal playmate, the first teacher of courage and grace. #waterspirit #throwback For my water brother @kajlarsenvice 🙏Thank you for your service, stories and inspiration. Art credit #kyerwiltshire #bottomtime #surrender #dawndream #sea #freediver #freedom (at Santa Cruz, California)
