Tag: OCEAN

What Would You Do?

What Would You Do?

By |

None of us like to think about it but the truth is this: The moment we are born, we begin to die.

Loggerhead sea turtle hatchling
Loggerhead sea turtle hatchling

Mostly we live our lives without giving ‘it’ much thought. But if we’re faced with the possibility of death, what would we do?

Mobile Bay morning
Mobile Bay morning

What is important to us? What do we want to do before we leave our body behind and embark on the mysterious journey of whatever comes next? What would be our legacy left behind?

And who would we contact? Who would we reach out to say….I love you?

Such important questions. But facing them isn’t something any of us want to do…not for real anyway.

So what if we chose to face them, without the big “D” facing us but answered as if it was sitting on our shoulder, black hood and sickle at the ready.

My answers, you wonder?

Who is my person? The person knows because I reached out and made contact. It’s not important who it is, but simply that I made contact and shared my feelings.

Cave diving at Kolimba.
Cave diving at Kolimba.

What I would do? Dive more…spend more time underwater in the place I feel most at home communing with the sea and creatures of the vast ocean.

What else? I would let go of fear and move forward with the strength of a knight to share beauty with the world. I would let go of the grief that has wrapped me like a gray blanket and simply embrace beauty and live within it and express it at every opportunity.

Pelicans and friend at Ft Morgan
Pelicans and friend at Ft Morgan

I discovered this week that my greatest fear isn’t death…it is losing beauty. The beauty of our beautiful water planet, of trees, beaches, dolphins, whales, manatees….of clear water, clean air. While the loss and beauty of a lover’s embrace, support and encouragement can be devastating, losing the beauty of nature is ultimately my greatest fear.

Choosing to ask ourselves these questions can free us to live fully and completely and to embrace that which is important to us regardless of the outcome.

Rumi wrote, “Our task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

Manatee...my heart opens to embrace these darlings
Manatee…my heart opens to embrace these darlings

And Leo Buscaglia said, “Love is always bestowed as a gift freely, willingly and without expectation. We don’t love to be loved. We love to love.”

No matter the destruction wildlife and wild places experience, I choose to love freely–refusing to hold back because I am afraid of them disappearing. No matter that human relationships may not last, I can choose to love because my heart feels love and expect absolutely nothing in return.

It isn’t complicated. It’s quite simple in fact.

I choose love. What will you choose?

Land-Locked No More!

Land-Locked No More!

By |

Awakening in the black of pre-dawn, I stood up and immediately missed the gentle rocking of the ocean. Sitting at my desk under the open windows beside the oak tree, birds singing to me, the entire house rocked me gently all day as I processed images and video. Or at least that’s what it felt like after a week on a boat.

During the many years I spent as a land-locked diver, I would always have a deep sadness at leaving the ocean and returning to the mountains. I love the mountains but the sea remains my constant, the core of who I am. And now, after dive trips, I find myself heading back to a coast and the joy is unmistakable. And the gratitude bubbles up in waves of heart-felt love for my beautiful home and the live oaks it’s nestled under….and the Magnolia River and the bays and the Gulf of Mexico–all a part of this life I inhabit.

The sights and smells of the rivers, bays and open water of the Gulf keep me grounded in pure ecstasy and appreciation for my wonderful home….yes, the outer home but mostly this inner home of beauty I discover as I open my heart and mind to beauty, to light….to unconditional love. I am free and the coast of Alabama mirrors this freedom to me, mentors my expanding efforts to bring all of who I am to this life.

And Then There Was Silence

And Then There Was Silence

By |

Today I was presenting a workshop on relieving stress through connection with nature. At one point participants were paired and were completing sentences given to them as cues. The room was lively as people shared about places they loved, animals and other nature-related themes. At one point I gave them the cue: What’s happening to our planet makes me feel….  The energy in the room suddenly shifted and it was quiet. Sad, depressed, scared….twenty-one individuals united for a moment by their concern about our world.

We need to get together, share our concerns and work together to create change. One thing is certain–if we do nothing, nothing will change.

The Language of Nature

The Language of Nature

By |

This past summer I deepened my understanding of nature. The challenge I find now is conveying, in words, the lessons because they came in wordless experiences while sitting under star canopies, beside salty waters–each conveying not with words but with the essence of life. How could I possibly scribble symbols to share this ancient language”? It is unwritten and must be felt….deeply felt.

I’ve puzzled over writing about primeval energies with words. It seems like two ends of a very broad spectrum of experience–the body and visceral and the mind that wants to sort and categorize and label. Maybe ancient earth wisdom is best described by sharing sensations, what my body experienced. And that’s easy: opening. My heart, mind, soul, body….o p e n i n g. 

So maybe the only thing I need to write is that nature opened me this summer and I found a deep primeval dance within my heart and soul.

What makes you dance these days? What opens you to life?

Cleaning Up Our Mess

Cleaning Up Our Mess

By |

On September 15th my mom and I participated in the 25th Annual Coastal Cleanup. We chose to walk the beach at the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge. In that 1.5 miles of beach we found: 34 plastic bags, 4 balloons, 12 plastic bottles, 4 pieces of glass, 4 aluminum cans, 33 plastic lids, 2 bits of fishing line, 2 pieces of cording, 1 large plastic battery case, 2 cigarette lighters, 1 tobacco wrapper, 1 condom, 2 chap stick containers, 1 plastic baby wipe carton, 1 plastic hair care bottle, 13 pieces of styrofoam, 5 food wrappers, 2 plastic pull tags, 2 plastic straws, 1 chair, 1 set of plastic flags, 4 rope pieces, 1 large tire, 2 plastic oil containers, 1 plastic deodorant container, 1 plastic grate, 1 large plastic drain pipe, 4 pieces of rubber and 1 rubber glove.

Since 1987 61,513 volunteers have removed 1,169,844 pounds of debris on 3,917 miles of coast and/or shoreline In Alabama. The Ocean Conservancy compiles data from all over the world to identify the general sources of debris and activities related to it. Last year about 600,000 volunteers collected more than 9 million pounds of trash from 20,000 miles of coastline worldwide.

We could look at these totals of trash and berate ourselves for being such a trashy species. Or….we can look at this effort as not only a way to clean up our mess but also to raise awareness about environmental stewardship. It may have started with a handful of tree huggers but the event has grown into an opportunity for scout troops, churches, and families to join together, spend a few hours on a coastline and show love for the planet by being responsible stewards.

Gone are the days when we have the luxury to say, I didn’t do it so why should I clean it up? We grow together as a human family when we move beyond that narrow view into an expansive view of pitching in to help the planet, which ultimately helps us all.