Within the Earth

Sinking down…down through the large crack in the floor of the cave…floating gently down into the belly of the earth. Gently…gently like a snowflake feeling the pull of gravity.

It had been a while since the embrace of the Earth Mother welcomed me into her depths. While I took a side mount class just before New Year’s, my sinuses, ears, a cold bug and equipment issues seemed to be a big stopper…or my own dislike of a high-flow cave. But today…ah, today found me with two friends sinking into a fissure in the bottom of a cavern into a lovely cave at Wes Skiles Peacock Springs State Park in Florida.

Fossils were evident in the rock walls. Shells and shapes of shells embedded in high arches and rocks add an air of mystery to this sacred place. Tan in color, the walls warmly welcomed us as we glided gently past. Dark brown silt, although a beautiful part of the scenery, dared one of us to disturb it. The gold line we followed snaked throughout tunnels, around rocky outcrops and we frog-kicked onward through pock-marked archways deeper into the earth.

A gentle sweep of a light illuminated small holes and large, expansive archways. An albino crawfish scuttled across the floor…then another….such contrast to the dark brown silt. A stray catfish swam past occasionally but silence embraced us as surely as the cave did. How sweet to be within the lifeblood of the planet. How much at peace I feel reliving it now as I get ready to dream.