The ever-changing sea reminds us to stay present, fluid, courageous, and connected. Pippa Best journeys into the sea to connect to source.
This article first appeared in Kindred Spirit in May 2020. Lockdown restrictions meant that many of you were unable to get a copy of this lovely magazine, so I’m very grateful to Claire Gillman for permission to share the piece with you here too.
“I am the spring of all waters.
My words are like a ship
and the sea is their meaning.
Come to me and
I will take you to the depths of spirit.”
Rumi
I am lying on my back in a cold Cornish sea as looping seagulls draw lines against the clouds above. The sky is shades of soft grey. Now and again, patches of blue appear between the gulls with a welcome wash of sun.
I’ve been in the water long enough to adjust to its thrilling coldness. My knees have softened, my neck is releasing the day’s tension. I can feel the space between each vertebrae of my back. I ache into the water, surrender, and expand. As I feel my energy field merging with the water, I can tune into deepest soul knowledge: that even as I need water, I am water.
This sensation of being both in the sea, and of the sea, is both momentary transcendence and acute human experience. In response, my soul’s gratitude reaches through the sea to myself, and ripples out again as self compassion. I am held by the sea, in exhilarated peace.
The sea is where I go to seek my soul. Where I escape my chattering mind, the constraints of external expectations, and my duties on land. It is where I connect to the source of it all. In the sea’s vastness, its unfathomable magnificence, I pursue the radiant mystery of our own existence.
Before I began my daily sea practice, I found it hard to pause and connect, to meditate or tune into a greater energy. It was difficult for me to channel my creativity without judgement. I felt momentary glimpses of what might be possible during Savasana in my yoga class, and in moments of creative flow, but mostly I just chose to keep myself busy.
I had always loved being in the sea, but had never considered making this a regular practice, nor understood its potential as a form of personal prayer – until a dear friend suggested that I stand in the sea to release some difficult life experiences.
As I stood at the water’s edge, barefoot and curious, I began to find solace in the horizon’s constancy, in the sea’s sonorous rhythmical turning of the stones, and the continuous motion of the waves.
I stepped into the water. Into trust. And as my feet slowly numbed to the cold, little by little, I allowed myself to release. Rumbling on, the sea took it all.
When I left the sea, I felt lighter, calmer, stronger, clearer. More connected to my courage and compassion, more accepting of change, more present.
And soon after that experience, I began sea swimming. A morning ritual that became my daily practice of release and connection.
Now, almost every morning, whatever the weather, you can find me in the sea. At that point between worlds where all the elements meet.
I leave the ground behind, to immerse myself in dappled forests of shifting seaweeds, before turning on my back to float in perfect harmony between the sea and the sky.
I leave the water aflame with vitality.
Freshly baptised by this union with source, I return home in flow, ready to dream and write, to channel the wisdom of the sea from water to page.
It is a journey that led me to create Sea Soul Blessings: simple sacred tools for all those who love the sea as I do. These simple daily sea wisdom prompts offer a connection to source, however far we may be from the sea itself.
From my sea soul to yours.
You might enjoy part one of this piece, Listening to the Sea’s Messages, and part three: Five Simple Sea Rituals to Transform Your Day: ideas for simple sea and beach rituals you can create for yourself, and all sorts of ways to connect to the sea’s beautiful wisdom, as we do every day right here…
In the meantime, if you’d like to read more, we’d love to stay in touch – you can sign up for our Sea Soul Newsletter over here.