Working the Edge

Hear Dan read this post.

for Jane

It is an ancient anal­o­gy: con­scious­ness is to uncon­scious­ness as land is to the sea. At the edge, there is a beach where stones are washed smooth and round, and the drift­wood lies heaped and bat­tered from the storms. A place of immense beau­ty, it is the con­ti­nen­t’s edge, filled with the sounds of seabirds, wind in the grass­es and white water that tum­bles down con­stant­ly upon itself, fan­ning smooth across the sand.

The edge. To walk here is to let the wis­dom in. Hard deci­sions become eas­i­er by look­ing out across the rest­less unknown to the very cur­va­ture of the earth. Or by sim­ply look­ing down to find a gem­like peb­ble of worn glass like a recov­ered mem­o­ry of home. Clouds, inner and out­er, sweep their shad­ows before them.

The salt air car­ries the rich scent of life and its cycles. The wings flash their migra­tions. The shells you pick up are lives cast off and fore­tell the new ones yet to come.

How many times, at least in your mind’s eye, have you walked that beach alone, ask­ing your ques­tions? Wait­ing, allow­ing the sea to deliv­er what it is meant to bring, know­ing that it is pol­ish­ing you, too?

Technorati tags: Edge, Cannon Beach, Consciousness and Choices