The descent

"I had the whole sky in my eyes and it was blue and gold" -Meursault

This past week, two kind souls lived with us and taught us how to look closely. We spent many hours together breathing borrowed air and sifting our minds through rocky reefs. My mind would linger on the crevices, on the steep walls that descended into deepness, on the nematocysts, on the quality of light, on life itself. The focus was in the searching, not in the finding.

As it turns out, it is no small thing to slip into the water and be overtaken. In air we told stories about the fish and the shape of its tail, of the crab and its shyness, of the crown of thorns and its dietary preferences, but what we were really trying to say was, I forgot myself, I was alive, I was transparent. I was swimming through a story that was startling in its tenderness and its trueness. I still do not know which story is real, and which is a dream.

I want to imagine what the future could be and then build it with you. I want to wake up together. I want to teach each other how to swim through time with a lantern mind, joyful in our search and unattached to what we find. Can you find the scallop covered in coralline? Can you truly see it, its mantle, its eyes, its existence, its infinite uniqueness? Are you open to how this true seeing will shape you, and through you, our shared future?

The scientific questions on the research permit spoke of species richness, change over time, and comparisons between protected and unprotected reefs. The expedition was an attempt to characterize these places, and an attempt to shape ourselves. Mindfulness is an active process of noticing new things, embracing uncertainty, and tuning into the present moment without effort. At this critical moment in humanity’s evolving self perception, we must go for a walk in the forest, slip underwater, and remember the forgetting that takes place. Just as all life can trace its source to the sun, let the source of all your waking actions be love. Let’s see what happens then.