So first things first, I know I shouldn’t be writing or working on vacation. But when inspiration comes you have to get it down! It is currently 8:30 am and I am sitting in a lounge chair with the ocean directly in front of me. My last blog touched on the element of water and, man, right now its in full effect for me. There’s something different though about writing about water from memory and being in its presence in the greatest form. I can almost feel my breath pattern lining up with the waves. If you’ve never been to South Florida I’ll give you a little run down. The breeze here does not stop…like EVER. The palm trees are constantly singing and there is wildlife all around. I saw two iguanas yesterday lying by the pool hoping us or other hotel goers would give them some food. I saw a flock of parrots coming from who knows where, and sea gulls and pigeons tend to roam together. But really what this blog is about is something I saw that really set a whole new perspective in order. While lounging at our beautiful infinity pool a squirrel popped up on the fence railing and no one thought anything of it except this one Spanish speaking family. They chased it down until they finally got a picture of it. This was very curious to me. Had they not ever seen a squirrel before?! How could this be?!
Obviously my own naivety was starting to show. In the South of Florida you almost start to feel like you are on the edge of the earth. Well at least the edge of the country. I guess I never thought about other cultures and worlds being so within grasp until I traveled here. I mean obviously I know there are other places beyond America, I have studied them and am currently studying them. But somehow my curiosity about what is beyond the horizon is setting in motion something in me that I want to pursue. Maybe a hard case of wanderlust? I think that has always been in me but now it seems within grasp.
Interestingly enough the thing that I am most curious about here is the cargo ships. I can’t stop staring at them. They come and go into the ports here and sometimes stay on the horizon for hours and hours. My mind is so intrigued. No one ever told me about these ships. I mean they are probably coming or going with imports and exports to other countries. Bananas, coffee, who knows what they are carrying. And again my curiosity is on full alert. I haven’t felt curiousity like this since I was a kid. Where did these ships come from and where are they going. All of a sudden I feel connected to something bigger than me, even something bigger than my own country. These ships are a bridging a gap between everything I thought I knew and everything I still have to learn. Cute metaphor, huh?!
The Earth uses such beautiful symbolism in everyday life. Even on my vacation it is teaching me so much about what I still don’t know. We have to let our curiosity run wild sometimes. And even as I write this I am curious as to why it is human nature to be curious. Maybe there is a lesson to be learned about staring at the ships in the horizon. Maybe we are never supposed to lose that childlike curiosity because it helps us into another stage of life. What will I do with the information I’ve learned at this beautiful beach? I’m not quite sure but I don’t think it will be wasted.
Apart from my curious nature coming to light I am finding more and more metaphors on this beach. I mentioned before that I could line up my breath patterns with the waves. Could the ocean actually be breathing? In yoga it is common knowledge, and researched based, that the slowing of the breath can and does reduce stress and promotes calmness and relaxation. When you step onto the beach you feel an almost instant state of deep relaxation. Now one could argue that of course you are relaxed, you’re on vacation! Duh. But why do so many people come to the beach for vacation? I believe it is the pattern of the ocean breathing and our need to absorb it. The ocean’s true nature connects us back to our own.
There is a deep state of peace offered by the ocean and something tells me tell I have been here time and time again, maybe more than just this life. The way I take on the natural ability to swim even when I am not much of a swimmer the rest of the year could almost guarantee that I was once a mermaid. Ok Ok maybe that’s taking it a little too much into the cosmicsphere for this blog but that’s what comes from curiosity…imagination! If my natural mermaid-like characteristics have something to tell me its that the water, like human nature breathes life all around us.