I was playing rugby with my son on a hill over Guildford as the sun went down, and the wide view took my mind to other wide views, and then to the sea.
Why is it the sea feels so healthy for us? I remember a couple of years ago, walking across the noisy stones of a harbour, taking photos across the coast, with nothing but contentment in my mind. It was as though the sea and the wind and the wide air took any troubles, and made them seem small by comparison with the space and the movement. There is something exhilarating about the way the air buffets your cheek, and something soothing about the constant flow of people across the wide view. And I remember being in South Africa on the very edge of that continent, looking down on crashing waves towards the wide sea, and feeling connected across the thousands of miles back to England.
The sea reminds us that wherever we are, we're part of something bigger than ourselves, and that everything, and everyone, are connected.
Come walk with me
Along the sea
Where dusk sits on the land
And search with me
For shells are free,
And treasures hide in sand.
(Unknown)
