The Sound-ness of the Ocean
The journey requires a slow down before going into the ocean.
Don’t tell my 7th grade teacher, but I’m geographically challenged. I’m good with directions and can navigate a map, but there are limits to my memory in retaining the location of states or countries in relation to one another. Now, once I take an actual journey, I do much better because I’ve got directional context. But to have a general understanding of where Montana is in relation to Arizona - yeah I don’t have much. I know one is north, ‘cause it’s cold and one is south, ‘cause it’s hot. But, I don’t have any idea what is adjacent above or below. I just know they ain’t nowhere near Georgia.
And, I’ve always struggled with bodies of water, so it is has always been particularly helpful when I go to a body of water to look at the maps to see how all of the nooks and crannies are connected. And as a natural element, water soothes my soul. Much in the same way that fire, wind and even walking barefoot do.
Well, this week, Cadelyn and I are in Miami. We are staying at a friend’s townhouse that is on the Intracoastal Waterway in Miami, and if you’re familiar with the area, you know there are LOTS of nooks and crannies. Turns out the Intracoastal Waterway (“IW”) is actually 3,000 miles of inland waterways from Massachusetts down the Atlantic coast of Florida over to the Gulf of Mexico ending in Brownlee, Texas. The IW includes natural inlets, saltwater rivers, bays, artificial canals and what drew my attention . . . sounds. A sound is considered a smaller body of water that is connected to a sea or ocean.
On this journey of increasing my sound mind, the metaphor of a sound, as a body of water, introduces an insightful metaphor.
In the sound by the townhouse we’re staying in, the boats travel slowly - whether they are navigating out to the open ocean or back to their dock. And in doing so, I’ve observed the boaters constantly taking in their surroundings, relishing in the last few moments of calm. And it reinforces that for me, I need a slow down. I’ve been doing a lot of hard things back-to-back-to-back and not finding that moment to slow down in the “sound.” The frenetic energy of the last few years placed my mind and my spirit at an unsustainable frequency, something that’s literally manifested in my mind and body.
I began to experience anxiety in some novel ways. I’ve always been a two-steps-ahead kind of girl. That comes from my upbringing with my mother who is a master planner, and from my legal training that’s taught me to look a few steps ahead and war game out what could happen. So, with this natural inclination to always experience a moment in which I’m somewhat present with a lens of anticipating all the options of what could be coming, the trauma of the last few years has meant I’m not slowing down in the sound and instead speeding through as I headed into the open ocean.
Back to the actual sound - as the person sitting up on the balcony, watching the gradual, restrained movement through the sound, I appreciate the low-gear speed. Because if they went faster, they would be splashing me and everything around getting it wet, they’d be at great risk for accidents with each other and the wake they would leave would make everything shake. Mmmmmm. Ok.
So, part of this sound mind journey is about the slow down as a I prepare to go out in the open ocean. Slowing down benefits me, the people around me, the vessels around me and my vessel. I also need to slow down when I come back out of that open ocean.
We also learned that in the open ocean the current is strong and you’ve got to have all the right equipment before hopping your happy self in the ocean. This week, Cadelyn and I took a little educational trip to Key West, Florida and went snorkeling to see the coral reef. That’s part of the deal with this “worldschooling” that we’re doing - we do at least one educational activity. Here are the highlights from Key West:
Key West is like a 4-hour drive from Miami. Remember I’m geographically challenged, I thought we were already at the end of Florida in Miami. I didn’t know we had 4 more hours to go (and wasn’t even clear how that was possible because I thought we were at the end of Florida). So, as it turns out the Florida Keys actually bend back a bit to the west. And it’s a one way in, one way out on a mostly two lane highway. Thankfully, we took a bus tour and I did not do the driving - just got to ride.
Our snorkeling journey was full of a fun boat ride, vibrant sea life and a strong current. It was a 1-hour boat ride from Key West to get to where the coral reef is located. So, that gives you context that we were out there in the middle of the ocean. Without appropriate attention to the current and working to swim against it constantly, we easily would have ended up in Cuba. It was a joyful experience just being in the ocean with the fish and coral and sting rays right below you. Somebody mentioned that they saw a barracuda AFTER me and Cadelyn got out of the water, but we had to remember we can’t be mad at the barracuda. We in his hood.
The not so great part was my motion sickness I experienced on the bus down to the Key West and on the boat ride back to the shore. As a person that spent a lot of time on cruise ships (I mean I met Michael on a cruise ship and did a lot of cruising to spend time with him) that had not happened to me. Yet, another WTH moment as I take more journeys around the sun. My back and knees hurt, I’ve developed lactose intolerance and apparently now motion sickness is a thing some of the time.
But not keeping me down, because I’m on this journey to find this soundness as I prepare to go out in the ocean and all the currents that will be there.
What are you doing to slow down before you head into open ocean?
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