Child of the Sea

She is surrounded on all sides by a massive stretch of midnight blue, a shimmering vast expanse of flowing planes, reaching across the earth to cloak all. It seems to spread forever, tinting the world with it’s gentle motion, caressing the horizon and setting a perfect boundary for the sky. Yet it is not so. She knows in her mind that, of course, it has to end at some point. That the tranquil water will suddenly and harshly transfer into dry and solid land, firm beneath her feet. She knows because she has been there, has been born and bred into this land-dwelling continent. It has been taught to her through school and television and everyday conversation, until it had become a rational law never thought to be questioned: “There is land, and this is where we live. There are oceans, too , but the land is our main society.” This was what her mind knew, and until now, it had been stored there, a common fact that really had no use. But something is changing. Something is changing her. She now find herself here, among the waters so free and uninhabited by human life. And by seeing these waters, and by tasting their salt, and hearing their serene crashing, a new stirring proceeds inside her body. She has never sensed it before, but she finds it to be a calling of some sort. A calling to the ocean. It begins in her chest, a tightening of muscle and a sudden increase of breath. Then, slowly, it tingles through her arms, prickling every nerve and sending a related chill up her spine. From here, it spirals into the rest of her body, attacking her legs, invading her mouth, nose, ears, eyes. It is suddenly and completely her only moving mental process to live here, to be here forever. The astounding fact of land and sea that has controlled her entire life erases itself from her, completely defeated and overwhelmed by the oncoming army of the sea. Now all she knows is the water, the cool, clear water that contributes to the entire world. And she realizes that, perhaps, it does go on forever, the ocean of earth. And she realizes that what she had known before, the law of human society, was a lie, a misconception. And she realizes, for the first and only time in her life, that she is finally home.