When Wisdom Washes Ashore
The author has recorded this writing if you would prefer to listen instead of read. Click below for audio —
When Wisdom Washes Ashore
By Dianna Edwards
When walking on a beach, you are in nature’s stillness.
You can choose to make it your stillness.
Picture yourself on a beach, or if you can — go to one.
On this beach, breathe in the sounds. Breathe in the sensations on your skin and let the taste of the salty air rest on your lips.
What a lovely, lovely beach. How wonderful it is to be here.
Let yourself be mesmerized, not by the blue lights, flashing texts and emoji’s that have become your life, but instead drop into the seductive silence of the sand. It offers you support and molds to your presence and yet wants nothing from you.
If your attention is to be diverted, let it be by the vibratory force of the waves that wash across your feet, not the vibration of alerts on your phone.
Let it be the squawk of a seagull that makes you turn your head. And as you do, look up and see the Sky in its stillness.
Watch as the Sky lets the clouds move through at their own pace. Notice that the Sky does not say,
“You are a very heavy dark cloud, please float elsewhere.” nor does it say,
“You strange behaving cloud, you are moving too slow, hurry along, you are in my way!”
The Sky feels no need to judge the clouds. The Sky does not want to fix the clouds. Take your wisdom from the Sky. Let your thoughts pass by without questioning or responding to them, your thoughts are your clouds. Slowly and deeply breathe out the distraction.
Now, return to your gaze, letting it drop back down and be entranced by the endless spray of trillions upon trillions of tiny bits of broken Seashells that are under your feet. You notice that these seashell bits travel on the sand farther than your eyes can see. Why are they all here? Where did they come from? Where do they go next? Stare into them as you stand or walk.
Breathe in their colors, their fragility and their strength.
What do you see? As you do this, be aware that a smile will start to fill your heart and want to move to your face to be shared with the world.
Just then one of your thought clouds comes by and you stop to think…
“Share my smile with the world? What world? I am on this beach alone. If I smile, it is just for me. And that seems rather unnecessary.”
Oh dear, there you go slipping into the comfortable old pattern of analyzing and thinking. Just as easily as you slipped you are again interrupted, but this time by the Waves that are crashing even harder on your legs. They are there to wake you up. Can you feel the gift of that interruption?
The Waves that now drenched you more than expected want to remind you they are here, the sand is here, clumps of seaweed and scurrying baby crabs and squawking birds are here.
The next Wave asks,
“What do you mean alone? You are here, now, a part of all this life called a beach. Are we not worth your smile?”
A few more Waves crash against your legs. You did not mean to offend the beach. A little bit of shame creeps in and you start wondering if you ever knew it was even possible to offend a beach. Surely it is not your fault if no one ever taught you that.
Another Wave hits your leg, and another.
As if someone is whispering in your ear, you suddenly hear,
“please stop thinking so hard, the sun is setting soon and there is still much here, now, for you to see.”
You look around, you want to see who said that. But does it really matter? What matters is that you heard it.
Not sure what to do next, you choose to breathe. You have learned, conscious breath is always your best choice when lost for words or action and when you are off your center.
On the 5th or maybe it is the 6th breath, you let your gaze return to those minuscule bits of Seashells. They truly are awfully tiny and delicate. As you consider what journey they must have been on to be here now on this beach, for you to witness them today in this moment, that smile returns. Something inside you has a deep sense of recognition of the journey of these shells.
You feel how they were once part of a beautiful whole, filled with life and purpose. Perhaps once they were a large clam shell, home to a delicate mollusk or as protectors of a luminescent pearl. You think: what a grand life that would have been for a shell. But now, sadly to you, they are mere fragments of themselves broken apart by their life in the ocean. As you think that thought, you realize they heard you.
The Seashell bits speak out,
“Broken apart did you say? We are not broken. We are enjoying our new life here now on this beach. As our edges are softened and we may appear to shrink in size and purpose, we are actually becoming a part of a far more tremendous whole. We love that we are part of the sand that now makes this boundless and majestic beach. We feel at home.”
Who knew Seashell bits had so much to say?
As you stand there feeling beholden to their message,
let yourself take in the wisdom of the Seashells and sand.
Breathe it in.
Yes, you are talking to sand and to Waves, if not talking you are at least listening. This realization makes you want to laugh. It occurs to you that their loving grace and presence is now becoming your loving presence. It feels good. It feels easy. When was the last time something felt so easy?
You may ask,
“What is this space where I am engaged in conversation with ocean, sand, shell bits and sky? Am I losing my mind?”
If that is so, then I say “Bravo, it is about time.”
If walking on a beach lets you lose your mind, then I say, “walk it more often.”
There is much wisdom that washes ashore on a beach. Whether you go there in the physical or in your meditation, you will be surrounded by it. Seek it out. Befriend it. Find it in the awareness and the gentle focus you can bring to all its movement and beauty. There is stillness in that movement. To be both in all that movement and yet feel the power of its stillness, then you are in wisdom.
Make it a gift to yourself to remember how that feels.
Yes, it can be that easy.