With Deep Medicine

During Dan’s illness and throughout his last days on earth, the ocean brought me comfort. Words fail to capture how much it helped me, but it was something about the immensity of the sea.

Boundless immensity.

Unfathomable depths.

Powerful enough to kill and mysteriously gentle. Home to millions of sea creatures within who arrive for their purpose and pass on in anonymity.

 

A love affair close or from afar

as when I raise a hand

wave to it

driving by the coast on Neptune Place.

 

How do we dare

mount its power

in tiny water crafts?

 

And trust ourselves

to its force?

 

How magnificent

it is

we are

when we commune.

Watching common dolphins

in Dana Point

giant whales’ surprise

a wealth of life

within its unfathomable depths.

 

Ocean matching the

power and depth

of loss, love, and human existence.

 

 

The ocean is medicine

for me whether

tiny toe in

or

walking next to its active rhythm.

 

Powerful sounds

create a secret language

that moves my soul.

 

Swimming at La Jolla shores

feeling a weightlessness

that defies time.

 

My family watching me bob

in the shallow space

between the far deep

and the shore

as minutes move towards hours

in the sea.

 

Driving anywhere

along the California coast line;

Or aboard a catamaran

watching for orcas in Edmonds, Washington.

 

For me,

It is a solitary experience.

Pure meditation = ocean + human mindfully joined in heart and spirit.

Ocean + me.

 

It’s calling me.

Before summer’s end, I shall respond.

Here I am.

If you find solace for your grief in ocean images,

within this blog is a post by “old man” that has been inspiring grieving people for the past 14 years.

I hope it speaks to you.

https://www.jillgriefcounselor.com/blog/grief-comes-in-waves-like-an-ocean-of-emotion