A Heart for ‘Salt’

Mother, Mother Ocean, I have heard you call… Jimmy Buffett

One day I happened upon a Native American art gallery. The owner, a member of the Navajo, and I got into a conversation about his artwork. I was in the process of moving to another state at the time. He told me I was moving to a spiritual place where I would live for a number of years. But as with all spiritual places, I could not stay indefinitely; one day I would know when it was time for me to move and where I would travel to. 

That was 15 years ago and the place I moved to was North Caroline. I am sitting here on a chilly spring night by the fire pit whose light has gone out for me both physically and metaphorically. And I feel the completeness with a peace that only comes from knowing that the time has come.

Don’t get me wrong, North Carolina is beautiful; the foliage alone is unbelievable in its multiple shades of green and flowers of lush colors. I could go on and on but it is something deeper that possesses one to leave a familiar friend and take what you have gained and bring it back to a place that you left long ago and as T.S. Elliot wrote, “know the place for the first time.” All the while remembering what Bilbo Baggins felt deep inside on his return trip from Erebor; “after an adventure one never comes home the same.” Hobbiton has not changed, you have!

Of my stay in North Carolina, much was lost and much gained. And the things lost were not as important as I thought they were and the things gained were with me all along but I never realize they were not mine to lose in the first place. I leave with an uncomplicated constitution and travel lighter than when I came, believing more and gaining things you can’t fit in a suitcase. Every lone wolf must join the pack once again, bringing forth all that he has learned. And so I hold this mystical thread as nothing is ever lost.

A New Home

I ride the hemisphere to where the ocean meets the sky and the horizon gives birth to the newborn sun. The surf’s crashing on the shore, wave after wave pushing it forward. I hear the sound of the wind as music on the open sea and feel it caress my face. All the while it seems to drive seagulls off course as they scatter for a handout. In the distant Pelicans gracefully hover over the water’s surface or anxiously plunge dive for food. A summer storm is sure to fall in from the skyline and just as quickly fall away. Thus to smell the salt in the air touching my soul and off into the sea to heal the vessel that carries it.

And at the end of the day the vast array of stars in the night sky give sight to the moon holding secret the meeting of an endless ocean to an endless horizon. It is here that one can embrace the vastness of the universe.  And it is here I shall be.