Category: Diving

Finding Center

Finding Center

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I just spent a week unplugged from the internet, email, Facebook, my iPhone, TV, and radio. On my recent dive trip to Bonaire I made a conscious decision to let go of my electronic connection to the world in order to facilitate a deeper connection to the Earth. What a lesson this provided…and a healing.

My first couple of days found me unable to connect with the beauty, the amazing life found on this beautiful desert island and under the saltwater surrounding it. It felt like a part of me was missing-in-action. The intensity of the past year of documenting the oil spill and recovery at the Gulf Coast had created so much grief and anger within me…about how humans treat the planet, how we are greedy, and put money ahead of almost everything. Swimming in the sea of dark emotions was blocking me from diving into the bliss of the ocean.

After my first dive, I sat on the patio in silence with a feline friend that adopted me. She curled up in the chair next to me and closed her eyes. I followed her lead and dove into the silence within myself. As I sat in stillness–breathing in, breathing out–I started to come home to my own skin. I found my center. And it was good.

Who will act as the shaman that helps retrieve a lost piece of the soul?

The next day I revisited a dive site that has special meaning for me. A few years ago, in the silence of the blue, I had a very life-changing experience there that I wrote about in Sharks On My Fin Tips.

“Lost in my blue-water reverie, I let my mind flow in sync with the movement of the water….Everywhere I looked life was evident…As I moved, I absentmindedly started to hum a tune….It seemed to come from my heart…..The more I droned, the stronger the emotion became until I felt a constriction in my throat. The sensation was so strong I had to stop humming and take a deep breath. When I halted I heard an answering refrain from somewhere outside myself. Without hesitation I knew it to be the song of the Ocean. The consciousness of the Mother Ocean was reaching out to me, tapping my heart with Her liquid fingers. It was Her song I had been singing….I hung motionless in the water column, overcome with the sweetest love I had ever felt.” (pages 142 & 143 condensed).

Even after four years, the memory of my experience was strong as I floated in bliss, surrounded by saltwater, surrounded by love.

Later that day I visited the south end of the island. The power of the surf was strong. I stood on sharp rocks breathing in the beauty, the strength of the Ocean. Once again, I felt Her reach out with saltwater fingers and touch me. In that moment I felt as if I truly came home to myself. I raised my arms and accepted Her gift. Rock me in your loving arms Great Mother. Thank you.

So the week continued, with each day bringing new experiences that provided a pathway to my center. Tomorrow I will write about the sea turtle ballet I participated in, but now it is time to unplug.

April 22nd-Oil Rig Sinks, Night Dive in Curacao

April 22nd-Oil Rig Sinks, Night Dive in Curacao

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Dive #478–Dive #17 of the week in Curacao, N.A. located 12 degrees 10′ 0″ N and 68 degrees 93′ 0″ W or about 50 miles north of Venezuela. Descent time-6.57pm. Water temperature-82 degrees. Location-House Reef at Habitat Curacao. Maximum depth-42 feet. Dive time-40 minutes.

After a week of really wonderful diving with a great group of friends, I was looking forward to the night dive because I get to see things not normally seen during daylight dives. I was also dreading it because it was the last dive of the trip. I was tired because I had over 14 hours underwater during the last five days. Even with my fatigue I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to submerge just one more time.

The night fish were out hunting. The reef was alive. I was treated to seeing an octopus curled under a nice coral head. Everything was going along just fine. Then I began to taste petroleum residue in my mouth. I thought it odd as I had no experience of weird tasting air thus far in the week (not a good thing when diving, especially due to partial pressures creating an exaggerated and therefore negative and toxic effect at depth). It was so pronounced that I turned the dive and came up to a very shallow depth in case there was a problem with the air.

I started to feel awful and it wasn’t only my body that felt bad. I experienced a general feeling of unrest and despair and had absolutely no frame of reference for any of the emotions. There was no current. Navigation was easy. It was a lovely night for diving. As I surfaced I immediately felt very sick. Two weeks later I was diagnosed with pneumonia and a sinus infection from which it took me weeks to recover.

My dive buddies’ air was fine and at the surface mine was perfectly okay with no foul taste or odor. So what was the problem? My experience on the dive bugged me but I dismissed it until I returned home and learned about the Deepwater Horizon oil rig sinking on the same date I had my weird experience underwater. I began to wonder…..

I’m not suggesting I was actually tasting oil from the explosion and spill but on some level I think I must have known the ocean was in trouble. They say energy travels instantaneously, that we are all connected to each other, especially those we love the most. My experience on the night of April 22nd helped me know the truth of that.

I adore the ocean and its amazing and wonderful creatures. I feel more at home underwater than I do on dry land. I have written about my love of the saltwater environment. So when it was grievously injured, why wouldn’t I feel it? We’ve all heard experiences of people dreaming about a loved one that comes to say goodbye in the dreamtime and upon waking we discover they did, in fact, die. The night of April 22nd I knew, on some level, that the ocean was being desperately hurt. Of this truth, I have no doubt.