The Gifts Of The Ocean
“Salt water itself is detoxifying and helps pull impurities from the body; the most common factors that inhibit sleep—stress, physical energy, pain, anxiety, hormonal imbalances and depression— are all addressed by time in the ocean.”
Meet Zoran.
When water makes a friend.
Prior to my Mom’s hip replacement surgery and just after returning to in-person school as a teacher, I visited the central coast. I was there to help her with some projects around the house, one of them being a bad leak in the garage.
This required tremendous effort and the cooperation of several people. The central coast wreaks havoc on wood homes. Wood rot is abundant. With much of her home foundation consisting of sand, rain water simply flowed freely around outside edges of corners of her garage and eventually made its way inside the garage.
The obvious first step was to clear the garage and that meant a yard sale. As we posted the signs, we soon realized that this huge project not only served its purpose of opening up a space for repair, but also introduced us to neighbors and new friends in the small central coast town.
Enter Zoran, a vibrant Yugoslavian-born Croatian-American who moved here in 1990, just prior to the 1991 Croatian War of Independence, primarily referred to as the "Homeland War." While he celebrates his 30 years of enjoying the beauty of the Pacific along the central coast, the truth is that he deeply misses the smell and taste of his Adriatic Sea.
On the day of our yard sale Zoran enriched our family, not only by purchasing an unused vacuum cleaner but more poignantly by offering his companionship to my 86-year-old mother who is struggling with the thought that she may never feel well again.
Zoran brought her hope.
Zoran started visiting my mother.
Zoran filled her empty hours with daily conversation. He assembled her new walker/transporter and made sure ice was in her glass. He checked in on her when she had turned off the lights too early in the evening and double-checked her home activity when her spirits rode too low for his comfort.
My daily phone conversations with mom often consisted of news about Zoran and his life. During my next visit, he joined us for dinner. And then with all the visits following, we insisted that he join us for a shared meal and a glass of wine.
Layers of coastline carved out by ocean waves
Zoran has been a lighthouse of positivity from the moment we met him. My mom’s hip was finally replaced and she has slowly recovered to a much more independent state of being. Though her mobility and independence has returned, Zoran still finds the time to check in on her.
While on this last caregiving trip to the central coast, Michael joined me on a walk to the beach and just after parking our car, who should we see parking directly adjacent to us? Zoran! He joined us for a wonderful 75 min walk through ocean waves, seals and dolphins surfing the crest and humpback whales migrating north in the distance.
It was magical and synchronistic.
Michael’s disappearing feet
Woodhenge
The Ocean
“The ocean can not only heal cuts with salt, but it has the ability to trigger a psychological state of calm and contentment. It can literally wash away the pain.”
We live in a time where being anxious is not an uncommon response to the question, “How do you feel?”
I just finished training for a course in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction for Teens. We’ll be offering a course at Mosaic Yoga this coming January for anxious teens who seek resolution and tools to help them cope. But it is the ocean NOW that offers the cleansing and the night time sleep sounds that provides the relaxation.
Smell and memory seem to be so closely linked because of the brain’s anatomy. Odors take a direct route to the limbic system, including the amygdala and the hippocampus, the regions related to emotion and memory. “These are sounds and smells of my childhood,” I tell Michael, and instantly, being here near the ocean again reminds me of the feelings I receive from it: the calm that overrides any sense of urgency.
Playful Ocean Towns
While walking through a neighborhood near my mom’s home, Michael and I came across a car completely covered with glued on miniature cars. We Loved it!
I once read that adults who participate in childlike play can be interpreted as people who:
Live in the present.
Have no concerns about money, productivity, or being cool.
Experience have no limits to their imagination
Can play and lose themselves in play.
Can create with abandon.
Later that afternoon and on the same walk, we came across a young girl, perhaps 10 years old, who was rotating the decorative pink flamingos in her front yard. These rotations often followed holiday celebrations. Today, the flamingos wore masks, perhaps for Halloween.
She seemed pleased that we were interested.
Fireplaces by the Ocean
I have never lived in a house without a fireplace; it is my intention to keep it this way. My father, my brother David, and I are most insistent about this home feature. Along the coast, the marine layer often requires a jacket to keep out the moisture of the lingering morning dew. (Recorded announcements played in the San Luis Obispo airport terminal even suggest, “Don’t forget to bring your jacket!”)
My husband grew up with sub-zero degree temperatures in the suburbs of Detroit and rarely wore a jacket during the winter. He definitely was not raised with a home fireplace.
I grew up near the ocean with 55-degree winters and pretended it was colder by wearing mittens and woolen hats and scarves while Christmas Caroling in my neighborhood. Afterwards, we would curl up by the fire and drink hot cocoa pretending that, “the weather outside is frightful.”
The warmth and the sound are soothing and calming, but according to science, the effect goes well beyond physical sensations. A study of the effects of fire sounds on people found that the crackling noises reduce blood pressure.
In other words, it really does induce relaxation.
Celebrating Autumn
The above link is to our favorite seafood restaurant along the central coast. It is the place where we decided to spend our 28th wedding anniversary alongside two dear friends who participated in the actual wedding ceremony, Jean and Kenton Smith.
With the ocean ever-present the sky suddenly opened up and through the marine layer and clouds, peered out the setting sun, enough to make the ocean give us a ‘Twinkle-Twinkle’ shimmering shine one last time before setting completely below the horizon.
As we celebrated our 28-years (plus 3 years of sin) together, we breathed in the Ocean’s mist and felt its moisture upon our skin. With its blessing, we bring in the depth of the Autumnal season with love and kinship, kindness and memory. We feel fortunate to be present with the gifts of the sea.
As I bring this blog to an end, I call attention to the harvest season and the celebration of the approaching holiday of Halloween. We gather to acknowledge the season of friendship, childlike playful behavior and activation of our memory senses… all of which warm our hearts and calm our minds.
