Marine Moments

The beach today

Sometimes we need to stop. The beach is a beautiful cradle for our souls, and sometimes we have to let it do that – cradle. So often I know I rush down, breathe deeply, march across the sand and back, am thankful for the pretty scenery feeling vaguely restored, and go home again. It is amazing to feel part of such a huge, dynamic never ending churning kaleidoscope of energy; to have it fuel our busyness. 

However, we are not a beach. We are not the forever restless movement of waves. We are not the thin veil of atmosphere that looks blue, but isn’t really. We are not the million year old stones under our feet, and we will not live with them for another million years after today.

We are part of, and apart.

We need to hold that thought gently now and then, and feel the awe and wonder of ourselves, here for but a blink of an eye; as relevant to the scenery as a single grain of sand. 

To stand still is to feel a little giddy as we let our usual flow of emotions slide past us, to feel the busy-ness flow away and the flutter of impatience fly into the breeze. Be cradled while we let lots go and breathe nothingness back in, emptiness, calmness, stillness. We are all equal in stillness. In nothingness hides possibility.

Did you know?

In Buddhism, ‘nothing’ or ‘emptiness’ means everything we cannot explain – all experiences, life, even ourselves.

A reflective moment

Nothingness is an interesting concept. Of course, there is no such thing as ‘nothing’ is there? There is always something. You only need to ask a little boy what they are doing to understand that there is no such thing as ‘nothing’…

A box may have nothing in it, doesn’t mean it is empty. What we usually mean by ‘nothing’, is ‘nothing we can see’ ( or understand?). There is nothing in the bare ground, but suddenly it is covered in aconites, there is nothing in the dark but as our eyes become accustom to the dark we see…. As the storm abates into nothing, there comes a small still voice of calm…. There is nothing in the basket and then generosity of others fills it with bread…. “I have nothing to give”, says the little drummer boy…..

To accept the stillness, and the nothingness in exchange for your every day thought-filled action-packed day, is a gift. I have ‘nothing I can see’, I am ‘nothing I can see,’ – that is fine. It is rest. In the nothingness of the moment, we are free. When we are rested, we can open our eyes to knowing that there is always something in the nothingness and rise once more to the responsibilities that the ‘something’ brings.

The sound of the beach

As it gets light, the dark rises and so do the birds, making the sky their own. Let the sounds and movement flow past as you rest in the moment of nothingness, safe in the knowledge that there will always be something in the nothing.