The way you write, the way you use your voice, both spoke and written, the way you weave meaning and depth into your letters Rebecca, is nothing short of magical. I feel as if I am there, in the waves alongside you. I can feel the sea breeze and taste the salt. I am swallowed whole by planetary eyes and heartbroken by the eider’s suffering and death. Reading your letters, looking away myself, immersing myself in the magic and wonder of my own tiny piece of existence, gives me the strength to look back. Thank you 💛

I really should know by now that when you float us in magic there may be a bumpy grounding. That poor eider. And so many others… “I think we owe this to ourselves: permission to make space for magic, to find breath, to dance in the wonder of the world for a while. That is, I think, the only way we can sustain the strength it takes to look.” This is so true, so important. Out in nature, looking, listening, time is perceived differently too. Part creative flow, part mental detachment from our tendency to count, to measure and divide. Sometimes I am surprised when I check how time seems to have slowed.

I too am excited to hear about your project; good things come to those who wait supposedly! Enjoy your Sunday Rebecca.

Absolutely beautiful writing.

Yes, friend Rebecca. The sea does have its own time. Maybe something to do with the tides and the currents... I don't know. You capture the feeling of lying on the surface, looking down, perfectly. I enjoyed scuba diving, but really, snorkelling is more fun, being in that interface of one realm, and another.....

Good luck with your new project. I'm dying to find out more, but my heart knows that waiting till a time is right, is the way to enjoy things most.

Best Wishes - Dave :)

Beautiful. I believe in the salt magic too 🩵

I love the analogy between walking south from the North Pole and time before the Big Bang. Somehow I've never been quite uncomfortable with the notion of a beginning to time. I can't remember when I first heard of it, but somehow it always just made sense. Still, I love to have another way to visualize it. For me poetry is often the door into the timeless. I especially love T.S. Eliot's musings about time in The Four Quartets.

I don't swim well and I often feel uncomfortable immersed in water. And I grew up in Texas so when we did go to the beach it was to the Gulf of Mexico where the water is warm and the waves are generally mild. But I remember one day not long after I moved to Massachusetts when my roommates took me to the beach and I managed to float on my back, a rare thing for me, and just drifted on the waves. It was one of the most peaceful and timeless experiences. I wish I could swim among the kelp and seals, but the next best thing is listening to you tell about it because in my head I am almost there.

I love the Mary Oliver line about paying attention being our proper work. And your line about looking away so that you can pay attention. Sometimes that glance aside is so so necessary. The walk along the beach, the slipping into the timelessness of the sea or a poem.

Thank you for your noticing and for your putting what you see into words. It is a gift to us your readers.

I love the last paragraph: "think we owe this to ourselves: permission to make space for magic, to find breath, to dance in the wonder of the world for a while. That is, I think, the only way we can sustain the strength it takes to look." I have felt the same thing but have not been able to express it so beautifully.

The use of the word ribbon brought the watery feeling to the forefront right away. The sense of floating, yet also belonging, encountering the seal and the snail beaded kelp….exquisitely written. The necessity of taking time to escape…the surfacing and going under, absolute delight. Thank you

This is wonderful Rebecca as all of your writing is. There are more things I’d like to say about it but my tired lambing brain refuses to help. I also love Karine Polwart’s music. Thank you for sharing.

I really enjoy the “time is relative” theory. It’s how I let magic in—being present can make moments last… forever in a way. Like drifting on a current or being consumed by my art practice. I guess in these moments it feels like time is irrelevant, or like it doesn’t exist; being there is all.

i love that the sea looses us & opens us to magic.

Beautiful & evocative. Your words helped me make sense of the timelessness I feel when I’m in the sea, embracing the numbing sensation of the cold. It resets my brain.

Another gorgeous post—both the writing and the sentiment.

Thank you also for sharing Karine. What a gorgeous song. Looking forward to following her work.

So grateful to have connected with someone who so thoroughly understands the import I’ve been open to the magic in the world.

Can’t wait to hear about what you’ve been working on !

Wonderful. I love being in water it is my favorite favorite thing. And thanks for this--

"There is a theory that once, time did not exist. I’ll try to explain it using the same analogy that made this make sense to me. Imagine, for a moment, that you are in Antarctica, and you have been tasked with walking south. You are walking through bright white landscapes, you are walking through swirling snowstorms, you are trudging, trudging, trudging southward. And then, one day, you reach the south pole. Someone tells you: okay, and now keep walking south. But you cannot. No matter which way you walk, you are not going to go south. This is not a paradox, nor a problem, it just is. There is no more south when you are at the south pole.

Now imagine that the same is true for time. When you are at the beginning of time – the big bang – it simply does not make sense to ask what came before it. It is not a paradox, nor a problem, it is just that there is no before. Before does not exist."

I had not heard this before. Thanks.

The snail beads💜. Fair winds for your two weeks of mystery good thing energy focusing.💫

Your writing is sublime Rebecca. Your description of the kelp beaded with snails, the planetary eyes of the seal. Your fascinating thoughts on the perception of time. Then heartbreakingly finding an eider- killed by plastic. I love eider ducks. I liked to watch them as a child on the North East coast. Good luck with your new project. Will miss you next week!