I have been writing for over two years now, so the pieces I am sharing on this blog are not all recent, but this one is — I wrote it last week after standing day after day with my feet in the ocean, looking, looking, looking.
Whale Watching
I am standing on the shore.
I am gazing at the horizon.
I am whale watching.
My feet are wet,
my skin is warm.
My hair blows about my face,
my eyes search steadily outward.
I am whale watching.
I have been told there are no whales here,
but I know better.
I have spent a lifetime coming intermittently to the shore,
standing, staring, knowing.
You cannot be this pulled
unless there is something doing the pulling.
There are whales out there.
I know it.
I am whale watching.
It is all connected, you know.
When I pause here with my feet in the water,
I am standing in every ocean there is.
All the waters are linked,
flowing from one to the other,
making one great sea blanketing the earth.
It is all connected,
and it is where the whales are.
I am whale watching.
I don’t have to spot them to see them.
I can picture them completely,
great hulking forms gliding gracefully
in cold, dimly-lit depths,
calling to each other in dissonant notes of song,
connecting, confirming,
bright-eyed babies swimming close to their mothers’ flanks.
They are out there, and I know it to be true,
and I don’t have to witness their breaching and blowing
to know that they need the same air I do
to survive and thrive.
We are not the same but we are just the same,
and my heart is pulled toward their strange beauty.
So much to do today, so many obligations, but I don’t want to leave –
I am whale watching.
***
All water on land runs to the sea,
all sea gives up its water to the sky,
all sky releases its water on the land.
It is a cycle, a circle, one pouring into the other,
never ceasing, always nourishing,
giving and taking what is needed
all at the same time.
I am surrounded by this endless cycle,
blessed by all of it,
grateful for the fruit of it,
trusting completely in its steadfast, steadfast giving.
***
Time to go about my day now,
but though I leave this particular spot,
the whales will still call to me.
I will hear them in my heart,
I will picture them in my mind,
and with every breath we share,
every drop of water we require,
every song we sing together –
I will be whale watching.
Lindy Thompson 