Water

Water gave us life.

Stand at the edge of the ocean in your bare feet.
You know, that area that is in the water,
but not,
depending on whether the last wave has returned to the sea.

Slowly, your heals will begin to start sinking into the sand, each wave taking away a few grains of sand. In a short while, if you can keep your balance, you’ll find the arch of your foot in contact with the sand.  Stay there longer and your entire foot will sink down, enveloped by the beach.

It’s almost like Mother Nature knows you’re there, your bare feet in contact with her, your skin in direct contact with her ocean.  It’s almost like she wants to connect with as much of you as she can, and by pulling away the sand under your feet, she connects with every inch of you that she can, in a motherly hug.

Water can also teach us how to live.  The oriental philosopher, Lao Tzu, said that if you toss a rock into water it will make a big initial splash, but after quietly making way for the rock, the water will begin a slow process of erosion, until at last, the rock is reduced to a few grains of sand.

Water wins in the end because it is flexible and the rock is not.
One of my son's trauma surgeons  said that in school they were taught that the face was the shock absorber for the brain.
I wonder if Lao Tzu taught that class.

I have always been amazed that the majority of this planet is salt water and so to is the majority of our bodies.  When I did a little reading, I found out that we have within our veins, sodium, potassium, and calcium in almost the same proportions as the oceans, and that the “sea” within us has the same saltiness as the Precambrian seas of three billion years ago!

It seems that when we left the sea we took a part of it with us.

No wonder we are drawn to the sea.  No wonder Mother Nature seems to want to envelope us when we stand in it’s edge. No wonder water is such a good teacher.