I’ve moved to be next to the sea because it calms me, holds me and sometimes excites me. Like the perfect partner really. It’s actually exactly like a partner; you see a different, warmer side to it on holidays, and if you pick the wrong one, it can kill you!
In my mind getting in the sea is saying yes to life; it's a metaphor for passion and abandon. It’s cleansing and magical.
Until a few days ago I used to get quite annoyed when people wouldn’t get in the sea, if they had the good fortune to be near it at any point. The people not getting in the sea spend every day not getting in the sea, so how about you flip that script and let the salty mass of waves hold you and catch you and throw you around! Wild salty abandon is sexy.
For me, the only thing better than getting in the sea, is getting in the sea and then the sauna. And get this, SOME PEOPLE DON’T LIKE SAUNAS. Well, chop me up and call me Susan!
It’s a tonic, its a lift, its a bloody laugh and you feel ALIVE!
I know its annoying to change your state from dry to wet from warm to cold, but in my mind, I think you should throw yourself in - commit to the moment - be uncomfortable - THEN you get buzz! The prize is in the doing and expanding your boundaries - the joy is in the squealing and the growth is out on the other side.
You can’t change your state without changing your state. If you get me?!
I’m the relaxing friend barking at them at the sidelines telling them they need to change their personalities. Oh dear. And all this persuasion and judgement from someone who thinks she’s spiritual! What happened to live and let live, what happened to everyone being different and finding their own tonic, their own way, their own source of something to hold them?
Some of my friends want the dignity of staying robe’d and unprobed! And quite right too! They probably wonder why I don’t speak more languages or know the capital of Kathmandu. Though I can google that, and you can’t google changing your energy state.
Up until a few days ago, I really did judge these dry lords, I know it shouldn’t be a revelation to accept we’re all different and forcing your agenda on someone else means you actually might be the asshole, but yes, I have only just registered this. But its not because I’m a prick, well, it might be partly that. But its also if something works for me I want everyone else to have this joy, this seismic shift, this free answer to many of the problems we’ve invented in our heads.
However, on Monday a friend explained why he didn’t want to swim - a very complex personal reason, rooted in trauma. So yes, I did stop yelling at him to get his trunks out.
So it was a sea tumble for one that day. And in the sea, I was able to process what he said and understand why different things work at different times for different people. So will I stop trying to get him in the sea? I wouldn’t go that far, but I’ll certainly turn it down a notch or two. A SEA CHANGE for both of us I think you’ll agree!
This really made me laugh. Ahh sea swimming is the best. I was a non swimming child due to my mum's childhood almost drowning trauma. She wouldnt go past her knees! However a friend insisted on teaching me how to swim as a twenty something adult, because he wouldn't have it that I hadnt learnt. He took me down to the pool at our work every day at lunchtime and drillled me until I could do it. (Not like that! 😉) That was 25 years ago, but every time I get to swim in the sea I message him to say thank you for his patience. What a gift he has given me!
Would love to move to the coast, still too shackled to the grim Midlands. Nearest we've got is Stourport-on-severn (think seaside town from Wish).
You were great in Last one Laughing. Naughty Torty!