Sea Gazer

I have been gazing at or trudging alongside the sea for most of the day. In some places it was wild and forbidding. Other beaches were serene, the waves lyrical as they gently rolled to shore. Some of the beaches were easy to access and a couple were pretty challenging to get to. A struggle for my Covid ravaged lungs.

It has been a grey and misty day so I had the coastline pretty much to myself. That is to say, I was mostly devoid of human company. There were plenty of aquatic birds clinging to the shoreline. They paid no attention to me. In the scrubby sand dunes I could hear birds twittering away but they were far to clever to be seen.

The pounding waves that crashed onto the vast rock formations at Cape Schank were,quite literally, awesome. As in, the roaring, booming noise they made and the turbulent wash of foam and spray as they threw themselves against the rocky outcrops, inspired awe in me. Capital”A” kind of Awe. Which is an amazing state of being. It dials down ego and dials up the nice stuff - like kindness and calmness. It also gives us a bump of oxytocin - the “love” hormone. Nice.

Being in the presence of something vast, something so much bigger than myself is transcendent. It transcends daily existence and fills me with wonder. Capital “W” kind of Wonder. I guess it comes as no surprise that so much that is awe-inspiring can be found in Nature. A glittering glacier, crashing waves, a deep velvet sky studded with stars. Nature Magic. There is a lot of that here.

“Wisdom begins in Wonder” - Socrates

Seek Awe.

Seek Wonder.

Seek Nature Magic.