Walking toward the shore,
You see the horizon where water and sky meet.
The forever you'll never reach but is always there.
You feel your muscles working against gravity as your feet sink into infinite granules of sand.
Feel the rhythm of your walking and the simultaneous polyrhythm of your breathing.
Notice the steps getting easier as you reach the compacted wet earth near the ocean's edge.
Cool water laps up onto your legs,
Refreshing your tired feet.
Like the horizon,
The ebbing and flowing waves are reassuring.
The constant tide that keeps on changing.
Notice how the waves are like your breath.
A wave laps up onto shore and doesn't need to be more or less.
It takes its time.
Let the out of your exhale take all of the time it needs to complete.
Like this wave arriving onto shore until it recedes.
Like your inhale back into the ocean.
Where to begin in this vastness?
Your eyes scan to the left,
Oh look,
A small rowboat for one.
Curiosity pulls your feet forward into steps towards the boat.
Left,
Right.
Sand between your toes and eagerness lifting your chest.
Left,
Right,
Left,
Right.
A trustworthy craft,
Lines neatly coiled on the seats ready to launch,
Nose pointed patiently towards the deep blue sea.
You come around the stern and lean your body weight into your hands,
Into the boat and find it easily glides forward.
No hesitation here.
Waves meet the sides slapping away resistance and off you go.
The shoreline recedes.
Back went back into the storm.
The rocking which rocked you to sleep now rocks you awake.
Rock your pelvis side to side here in the boat.
Where are we?
I don't know,
But we're breathing.
The landscape of your mind is washed away by the horizon wrapping around you in all directions.
Nowhere to go.
You are here.
You are cradled,
Your abdomen relaxed.
The ease of your breath makes the space even bigger.
Exhale to the horizon.
Raise your right arm in front of your face and on your next exhale blow through a straw tracing a line from your hand to your elbow and back again.
A pink kite dances in figure eights above you,
A dance synchronized with your breath.
Follow the kite with your head side to side,
The base of your skull gliding on your top vertebrae.
Bring your hands to your ribcage,
Feel your breath.
Your diaphragm is anchored to your 12th ribs like the kite to the string.
It catches the wind and billows up with your exhale.
You trace the kite string down with your eyes and find it tied in a bow to a hook where the anchor should be.
The wind from within awakes the wind from without which picks up and strokes your skin with nothingness firmer and firmer.
You stand up to meet it and find gravity alone not enough to organize you upright.
You must lean into the wind to stay on your feet.
Your rocking turns to a lurching side to side,
Left right you find a dance left right left right until is it you or the wind that sends you toppling head first into the sea.
You are sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean,
But like an ancient sea creature you find yourself able to breathe.
You are at home here in the depths.
Your breath is your tuning fork,
Your body is your home.
Surrounded by water you notice the subtle sensations in your body.
Notice them with the emptiness of your breath.
Emotions may arise here too.
What is coming up for you?
There is room here deep in the sea for all of those places to exist.
Place your left hand on your diaphragm and feel your breath.
The rise on the inhale,
The longer fall into nothingness on the exhale.
Bring your right hand above your left and feel the quicker beat of your heart,
A counterpoint to the breath.
Multiple rhythms in your body,
The ocean inside your body and the ocean surrounding your being.
It's time to leave the depths.
You push on the ocean floor with your feet legs trailing like the legs of a jellyfish as you float up,
Up,
Up,
Breathing in and out,
Diaphragm rising in your sternum on the long exhale,
Lungs feeling like balloons on the inhale over and over.
The rhythm is irregular and perfect like a wild animal.
Finally you emerge into startling daylight.
You glide through the water swimming towards the shoreline finding your heavy limbs now crawling,
Scrambling on the soft,
Wet,
Sandy earth.
Ar gradient chiran Jefforp 21 you
