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Ocean Mist's Secrets 

 

My old friend the whale head bone 

 

Yesterday at the beach – a glorious feast of light. First sun, then many shades of grey are starting to lodge themselves into the minutely shifting landscape. Ocean, clouds, seaweed, sand, dunes, fog, mist. Within this play the seagulls, sandpipers, pelicans, geese, all creatures, even humans, are included. The rhythm of change, ebbing and flowing, strong waves cresting and crashing. A thick soundscape, soothing with its improvised as well as repetitious melody, sometimes pierced by cries. Encountering the elements of life and death, I keep walking on... eventually merged with fog and ocean spray – all is misting my being… 

 

pigeon guillemot 


Once in a while strong, but fleeting, sunrays peak through, and vivid colors infuse the scene with bright blues, browns, greens. My bare feet find their steady rhythm on varying sand surfaces, soft, firm, wet, submerged by water, every so often my soles seek out the delicious slime of seaweed bundles. Increasingly I am enveloped in another world. Everything is otherworldly. 

 

head of a mysterious sea animal 

 

A world of secrets I know little about – so I listen. On my three-hour walk I meet a lot of death washed up on the beach. The coming and going of life, waves, birds, and fog – their dance takes over. My body-being tastes the salt of existence, of blood coursing through my veins.

 


Someday, my physical body will be ready to decompose, just as the beautiful cadavers I am encountering today. Surprisingly, this thought feels comforting. The sense of belonging to the natural order makes me nod in acceptance and smile with gratitude, happy.  

 

For a brief moment we are here on earth, then gone… May we taste life’s grace and beauty. 

 

another pigeon guillemot

 :

More photos of whale head bone
https://karinalandriver.blogspot.com/2023/02/a-new-year-what-needs-to-be-learned.html 

  

Comments

aysha said…
I’m reading this just after my mother has told me that I smell bad… again. She has never been able to accept my refusal to wear deodorant, and I am constantly anxious about my smell around her - my body is too animal, too porous, too nasty and unpleasant for the woman who birthed me, and perhaps for everyone else too. I am grateful to see your photos of death on the beach and to remember that smell of rotting seaweed and flesh mingled with sea salt. I miss the “delicious slime of seaweed bundles.”
August 17, 2023 at 7:58 AM
nicole gervacio said…
this reminds me of conversations we've had and in other communities about the human need for re-enchantment...the need for slowness, presence, to take in the world around us, to listen to the lessons that our earth offers us in what can seem small and subtle but hold such immensity. there's so much poetry, symbolism, mythology around us if we can receive it, consider it, reflect on it, reminding us of what it means to be living on this earth, remember how to be beings with our time here. love the humility and acceptance when you write so beautifully of the comfort and sense of belonging that death, decomposition, returning to land, water, air, is the natural order...that our temporary existance can be accepted with happiness and gratitude...an understanding many humans have lost touch with.
August 18, 2023 at 12:19 PM
Alex K said…
What you have written Karina is very beautiful and the photographs are transfixing. After reading, I felt both sad and joyful and then despair and liberation. It feels impossible to separate.
August 18, 2023 at 4:01 PM
Karina said…
Thanks for writing, Aysha.You smell wonderful. I am responding publicly so everyone knows: I have never worn deodorant in my whole life! The smell of deodorants makes me feel slightly sick. I enjoy the fragrances of real sweat on others and myself. America's twisted culture of detesting sweat is classist and somewhat racist of course, very problematic. The addiction to excessive cleanliness that kills all germs and bacteria brings about a compromised immune system. Literally and metaphorically. With those attitudes we kill LIFE as well!

Here is to nature's endless kind of smells, including us crazy humans, and our many preferences and pure delights. Let there be biodiversity.
August 18, 2023 at 5:37 PM
Karina said…
Thank you, Alex. Are you sure it is despair? Maybe it is sorrow...? Perhaps try to follow the thread of it... All of us are holding most of the time two or more feelings at once – and all feelings shift like clouds...
August 18, 2023 at 5:45 PM
Ecraig said…
I'm blown away by the beauty of these transitioning beings 💚 I'm feeling humbled and lit up by the invitation/reminder to connect deeper with all parts of nature, that we are a part of nature. My societal conditioning makes that so hard to be present with consistently as I'm sure it is for many others so the glimpse into the magic we access when we do is so good!
August 20, 2023 at 6:55 PM
Ingrid said…
Please be proud of your smell! I detest deodorants and almost always like human smells if they are not extreme. Ditto to Karina's reply about addiction to cleanliness! It bothers me when people apologize for their smell, or for not showering, or act as if skipping a day of showering is a sin!
August 21, 2023 at 6:54 PM
Anonymous said…
(Ken Sisson) Karina, these are beautiful photographs, and your thoughts on being one with the natural order gave me great solace today.
August 21, 2023 at 8:32 PM
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