Magic and Wonder

I spent some time at the beach this morning. My plan was to try my usual post-yoga meditation in the wild rather than in my living room, but it didn’t go as expected.

The surf was rougher and much too loud to enable a truly quiet contemplation. It did, however, drown out the traffic and jogger noise at my back; all I could hear was the wind and the water, and the ocean itself demanded all my attention. I took a bunch of pictures before I made myself set technology aside in favour of breathing.

Alas, mindful breathing did not happen. Trying the match the ocean’s rhythm was impossible. The waves were too inconsistent, playful with an untamed edge. Failing to connect with nature because I was distracted by nature proved ironic and a tad annoying—but here’s the weird thing: when I finally admitted defeat, the magic happened.

I noticed that the rising waves became translucent just before they struck the shore. The sun got caught in the curl and completely changed the water’s colour from steel blue to absinthe-green. One in particular stood out. It seemed to pause at its peak, meeting and holding my gaze for a heartbeat, then it moved on … but not before a curious thought came to mind:

We are one, you and I, born of the same source. We are energy in different forms, yet we are connected to each other.

This is true. Everything in our world is energy made matter at differing vibrational levels. Don’t ask me how the Universe does it. It just does. Rare moments occur when the obscure notion of connection between us and everything else is suddenly less obscure, which brings us to the Philosophy Question o’ the Day:

Whose thought was it on the beach this morning? Mine, or the ocean’s?