Seaside musings, a coastal diary series. (Part ONE – Scene TWO)

TWO | Before Sunset, Before Sunrise

PART ONE – SCENE TWO
Saturday, September 23rd, 2023

FADE IN:
EXT. NORTH SEA SHORELINE, NIEUWPOORT BELGIUM – EVENING/NIGHT

Here I am, walking along the shoreline while the sun is setting behind me.

I came to look at the sunset from the vantage point of the dunes, but something pulled me to the water’s edge. Though there are still plenty of people out and about, it feels like at this moment it is just me, the wind and the waves. 

No music this time, except the sound mother nature provides. The rushing of the waves into the shoreline and the wind whooshing along in harmony.

This most soothing silent sound fills my world. A panoptic blanket of white noise takes me in its arms and shelters me from the rest of the world around me. 

I spot a few washed up jellyfish and get completely entranced and start taking pictures. The light hits them just right. What an amazing sight to see.

A little sad and melancholy as well, since chances are these graceful yet delicate sea creatures are dead or dying.

That’s nature for you. The undercurrent brings the jellyfish to the surface, where they wash up on shore and dehydrate. The sea is as cruel as it is soothing. 

But actually, the sea is neither cruel nor kind. That’s what man made of it, anthropomorphising a body of water out of fear and misunderstanding. The sea lives and is in turn teaming with life, both above and below the surface. Yet it can never be cruel, nor can it be kind, because it simply gives no fucks. The sea just exists in a series of ebb and flow movements, drawn in and out by the gravitational pull of the moon. Ebb and flow. Ebb and flow. Ebb and flow. Day in and day out. To be more like the sea… 

There’s a therapy analogy that helps you look at recovery from depression and burnout (and pretty much life in general) as a series of waves. You cannot be happy all the time and you will not be sad all the time. My life over the years has felt like a road of sky-scraping peaks and rock bottom valleys. Losing so much of myself in the darkness of those deep chasms. My sense of self. My sense of wonder. The things I am good at, and the things I love doing. Writing is one of those, but photography used to be that as well. 

Well, this moment in time is where I draw the line in the sand and say: no more of that. Yes there will be ups and downs, there always are in life. But from now on I will be more like the sea, a slow and steady ebb and flow. Because there’s always a new day tomorrow, where the moon can pull on me again to bring me onto shore. 

As I walk up the pier, smiling when I hear two kids singing ‘Laat ons een bloem’ by Louis Neefs. Another song that is filled with fond memories of family, the child within me and so many more I can’t even begin to list. I keep walking, entranced by the view, the sounds, and the activity of the night-fisherpeople.

It is again so fitting, so synchronicitous to hear this song at this point in time. See me walking into the future, with the music as my compass and guiding light. 💜