Emily O'Dell with globe-trotting Anubis in Lebanon
Don’t wait any longer. Dive in the ocean, and let the sea be you. — Rumi
Whether there’s a bombing in Beirut or a fragile peace–the one place to where I run every day is the sea. While I go to swim with the turtles, Anubis goes to bathe in the sun. On occasion, he’ll agree to cool down by taking a dip in the water–or basking in the steady breeze in the shade.
Anubis testing out the waters in Lebanon
Anubis swimming in the sea
I am a turtle, wherever I go I carry home on my back. — Anzaldúa
While hunting for turtles this week in between waves, I realized that in spending all of my time under the water chasing after turtles and spying on fish–creatures with eyes–I’ve been neglecting the other inhabitants of the sea–along with its pulse. The hypnotizing rhythm of the seaweed as it sways. The pistachio shape of the encrusted shells. The whispers of the foam riding in on the waves.
All these details, I’ve been missing. And now, like any lover, I want to explore every inch of that unknowable sea.
The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
All year, I’ve been ignoring the worn rocks reaching under the water to break the surface–and only just started standing on them like a balance board–my body hovering like a ghost far out over the sea. Whenever a playful wave comes to buckle my knees, I resist its pull and keep my feet fixed on the pocked rocks–to slowly push up and rise again. Rooted and swaying, like the seaweed stroking my shins, I’m slowly becoming attuned to the message of each wave.
You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the entire ocean in a drop.
— Rumi
Standing today on one of the rocks, my hair bathed by the wet breeze and my body battered from the lessons of the waves, I looked out from my invisible perch and saw infinite space. Like an ancient statue in ruins, I felt ready for the sea to swallow me whole. Under my toes, was already buried a brilliant coral bouquet…
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
— William Shakespeare
Emily O'Dell flipping out in Beirut
