I sometimes like treating myself to a very special non- materialistic experience. When I’m feeling over worked, stressed and burnt out with the modern fast paced must have it now  technological world we all live in, I will refresh by taking a long swim in the ocean. This is not an ordinary dip in the Atlantic Ocean, but a ritualistic event that calms me down and brings my spirit back into alignment with nature. I make my way to the ocean around two to three in the morning when nobody else is at the beach. The sky is lit up with the moon and the water of the ocean is relatively calm and flat. Summer is the best time of the year when the temperature of the water is like a bathtub.

I first like to meditate on the beach sand while facing the ocean. After a few minutes, I go into the water and begin to swim out far away from the shore and enjoy the ocean without any distractions. I look back towards the beach and see lights on the mainland and drift along with the slight current. Occasionally, I will hold my breath and dive under the water and pop back up above the surface feeling my heart beat faster.

Schools of tiny fish will once in a while swim into my path and dart in and out around my floating body. These small fish for a few moments become my friends. When this happens I’m very happy laughing uncontrollably and feel like the luckiest person and so grateful for their companionship. The shiny silver bodies of the fish swimming around my body while I’m flowing along in the sea, causes me to become tranquil. I’m stripped down to being nothing but this floating organic material, in the vast dark ocean, carried along with the current totally free of all of life’s complications.

Eventually, I begin to tire and know that I must leave the ocean and make my way back to the beach. Once out of the water, I have a bit of a hike back to my original launching position because of the current drifting me along while I was in the sea. This walk along the sandy beach allows for a solitary reflection of my time in the water.

Back to HOME PAGE

Copyright© Edge of Humanity LLC 2014