I am at the ocean. Yes, in January. I recommend it. Divorced from laying in the sun or running in
the waves there is an even clearer sense of the eternal majesty of the waves and
their reminders of the eternal majesty of the Divine.
For me there are spiritual practices associated with the
ocean. One is the practice of
non-attachment. Buddhist monks have a
practice of spending days painstakingly making beautiful Mandala designs out of
different colored sands. Then after
their careful work is completed they ceremonially destroy the work. This is a ritual expression of
non-attachment and the impermanence of all things.
Long ago when my daughter was small we would come to this
same place and we would enjoy making a sandcastle and then we would watch the
tide come in and destroy it. Later with
her stepfather and her step brother we would build an even bigger one with an
extensive moat system and we would race to complete it before the incoming tide
would come for it. We would play at
defending it, and then finally stand back and watch its ultimate
destruction. A reminder that nothing
man made is actually permanent or stands against the sands of time. After my divorce, I came and built a sand
castle just to watch it wash away, just to acknowledge the years of work I had
put into the marriage and then to release it.
There is a funny kind of peace I cannot properly explain about knowing
that in the end it all, everything we do, returns to the ocean.
There is another beach ritual that goes hand in hand with
this. It is the throwing of the rocks in
the ocean. Some year when I was full of
angst and troubles I stood watching the crashing waves and the majesty of
God. I began to pick up rocks and name
them for the troubles of my year, and then to “give them to God” by throwing
them into the ocean. I would do this
till I could think of nothing more to throw in.
I would leave feeling lighter - emptied.
I value the practice so much I often recommend it to clients to release
grief or anger.
