For as long as I remember I have had a sacred kind of love of the wild ocean and far stretching coastal landscapes. By sacred I mean it's beyond the physical world of science and a different kind of familiarity that's intrinsic to my being. Perhaps it's in the not knowing and lack of words to describe the spiritual knowledge reminiscent of the primordial soup from which all of life on earth once arose. Quenching an unmistakable longing to return home to the infinite.
Again, I find myself on a family Summer holiday, only streets away from the mouth of a bay that opens out into the wild and wonderful ocean. This time we are in North Narooma on the coastline of Southern New South Wales. We are located in a beautiful spot on the edge of a forrest where the waves are fierce and the currents strong and unyielding. You can literally feel the pull of the ocean as it meets with bay, opening and closing in at the same time creates a swirling undercurrent storm beneath the surface. Soon upon entering into sea you are swept up into the immense power and the natural world of flow where we can let go of our own struggle to hold a position and move with the prevailing tides.
As a young child I have fond memories of Easter and Christmas holidays at Torquay foreshore caravan park on the Great Ocean Road. With family all bunked into a canvas cabin, the fridge a relic from the 60s covered in Rip Curl stickers and friends close by, living in a small community close to the best beach in Victoria. In fact it was so close that every night I could hear the roar of the waves serenading me as I drifted off to sleep dreaming of the adventures that await me in the new day. Early mornings I was woken up by the milkman truck beeping through the streets and if I was lucky enough I got a chocolate Big M with the small change pocket money mum had left over from the coin showers. I remember the incredible wave formations we played in everyday at Torquay, Bells and Jun Juc beach. Spoilt for choice, I would often accompany the older daughter of our family friends who was a seasoned surfer doing the amateur competition circuit. While she paddled out the back I would play in the whitewash on my surf mat, riding wave after wave until my eyes were bloodshot red and my body needed refuelling at the fish and chip shop across the road.
Back in the day we could sit on the sand to watch the longest running event in competitive surfing, The Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach, an iconic stop on The World Surf League Championship Tour. When we weren't seeking surf we'd play for hours in the shrubs along the coastline including the long grasses and spindly trees that doubled as forts to protect from strange holiday makers we'd not yet met. I have revisited these places as an adult in search of the magic of childhood and have seen it in my own teenage daughters exploring the rock pools and caves on bikini clad adventures with wide eyes and free spirits.
Bluemind describes the meditative, relaxed and introspective state we find ourselves in when nearby or immersed in the ocean. The good feelings we have while being in the sea can lead us to think clear and interconnected thoughts and inspire the healing of both self and the earth. Despite this I have been down to the beach everyday while staying here and most days it's empty apart from the surfers chasing the ultimate wave. The wild ocean is magnificent unlike any other soundscape on the earth. It's undercurrent a deep, bellowing, humming sound that gradually disperses gently into a soothing calm peacefulness of life is in a constant state flux. The sea and its constantly changing waters can reflect our own ups and downs, ebbs and flows as we ride the rolling waves inwards or paddle out while being tossed around as if in a giant washing machine on a spin cycle.
While playing in the waves I notice that it is only when I try to keep my feet in one spot that I'm resisting the natural movement of everything I am connected to. In this sense the ocean is showing us how to let go control and open our senses, allow ourselves an encounter with the natural rhythm of life. We may be seeing the sunlight glisten off the water and stretch across the endless sky, the gulls drift on the breeze above and watch the sand make your toes disappear as the frothy white water washes over them. As I come up for another salty breath, the bubbles of froth from the crashing waves are all around me and my body relaxes with floaty weightlessness being carried casually back to shore.
Early morning wanders along the shoreline I am reflective and melancholy that the humans who populate our planet continue to destroy our precious mother earth. While the oceans seems so vast and untamed, the truth is that the humans appetite for seafood has created pollution, destruction and over crowding. Fishing vessels and their rubbish are killing what was once a sanctuary of abundant, biodiverse plant and marine life. There are less shells to collect and most of them look the same but when I was a kid there was all different kinds, colours and shapes. Our consumption is unsustainable as many of us already know and we have caused so much damage that recovery will be slow but we have not yet done enough to even begin to turn it right around. I don't eat seafood these days because of the guilt I feel knowing the whole industry is doing so much damage.
Spending time by the sea and letting the ocean wash over my mind and heart I am reminded that nature is alive and will repair itself if humans not only stop destroying it but start to take care of it and live in a reciprocal relationship with nature. This massive mysterious ecosystem is self correcting and self organising if humans can just get out of the way and stop trying to control it and go with the flow. For this to happen we need to reimagine ourselves in the reflection of natures beauty and not feel separated or afraid. I can't imagine there is any better way to this than to spend time in the ocean and be intimate with places that are wild and do so with more appreciation, care and the desire to protect our home. While we can spend time away enjoying nature and immersing ourselves in unwinding and relaxation its the work we do in our day to day lives and the lifestyles we live that make the biggest difference. Make sure your footprint is light and your foot steps are purposeful.
Every time I slow down on holidays, and they are almost always in nature these days, I look forward and try to imagine how I can make my life more in harmony with everything I am experiencing and learning from the natural world. Lately my work is moving more and more in this direction and the more I am connecting with the nature the more I feel my purpose is affirmed. I've become good at finding my path over many, many years of practice and now have complete trust in my own ability to listen deeply to nature for guidance, use this connection as my guiding inner compass and direct a course in alignment. The work in helping others to do this deep nature connecting, listening and creative path finding provides a sense of purposeful contribution to community.
Next time you head to the ocean, take a moment to tune into the sounds, feel the water lap at your toes, legs and engulf your body, watch the way the sun dances on the surface glistening into thousands of tiny diamonds. Witness how the crashing waves playfully creates a climax of energy that moves completely into calmness and then repeats it again and again relentlessly and never giving up. Witness the way your body moves with the ocean and how you feel reborn after each crashing wave. Feel the old drift wood as it lay quietly on the sand tangled in seaweed and letting go of the long journey it's taken since seed. Lay casually on the waters edge, while your toes dig into the salty sand, softened by the lapping water as it stretches across the landscape endlessly and faithfully. What may all this beauty teach us as about community with the earth and all it's creatures and about a human life well lived?
