Marine Moments

The beach today

At each incoming tide, the beach is wiped clean, fresh to begin again; to be stamped with the imprint of walkers, dogs, gulls, and the life of all those who move within the sands and leave trails and tracks of their passing – until the next incoming tide.

We tend to see our lives as stretching out over days, months, and years. We holding on to events, behaviours of ourselves and others from the past, which continue to weigh us down and influence our present. We tend to see our lives as marks as indelible as a pen you pick up to use on a white board, only to find it does not wipe off…

However, what would it be like to see our lives as only existing within the inter-tidal zone? Wiped clean once every twelve hours? A fresh start to try again. We have between the tides to leave our mark, experience life, try out things, live, work and play, learn from mistakes, struggle with our problems, and enjoy ourselves. Each action has an impact on others, on ourselves and the patterns in the sand show how our life is unfolding, – and then they are gone.

An empty beach awaits. How will you step on the sand today? What patterns will you draw?

Did you know?

In the Christian church calendar this is Holy Week, leading up to the crucifixion and then the resurrection of Jesus. The belief of all Christians is that Jesus died and rose again in order to save us from our sins, to allow a constant clean slate to ‘try again’. He died to erase our sins, to prevent them from weighing us down and from being able change for the better: He died to enable us to live within the inter-tidal zone.

Reflective Moment

Forgiveness – to be forgiven and to forgive ourselves and others – is a key factor to be able to let go, and find your fresh sandy beach each day.

If our life are the patterns we make on a sandy beach which is renewed after every high tide, then we need to live in the present, let go of the past and not worry about the future. We need to make every present moment count, before it is wiped away into the past.

Living in the present moment means letting go of the past and not waiting for the future. It means living your life consciously, aware that each moment you breathe is a gift.

Oprah Winfrey

Sound of the Sea Today

Listen to the busy sound of the sea today as it rushes in, fizzing slightly as it percolates the holes in the sand. Hear the trickling and splashing sounds as it encompasses stones, and overflows rockpools, filing every space back up with water; flattening ripples, smoothing out indents created by footprints, holes from spades and castles by children. In the background there is the constant swoosh of each waves, and then the whispers as the waves reach forwards to level, and quench, flood and smooth.