I Discovered The Meaning Of Life

During an active meditation at Crane Beach

The drive from my house to Crane Beach typically goes like this:

1. Merge onto Boston’s i-90 through and beneath the cityscape with a podcast playing(this most recent listening was Still Processing).
2. Continue underground with the occasional passive thought of being crushed by potentially poorly built concrete tunnel ceilings.
3. Come out alive and keep left to Rt1.
4. Pass by eclectic-looking restaurants and relics like the Hilltop Steakhouse sign.
5. Join i-95 to emergent greenspace.
6. Exit to Topsfield and pass the vacant Topsfield Fair lot.
7. Turn right toward Ipswich center and roll down the windows to invite the fresh air and late morning dew evaporating by the river into the car.
8. By now the episode is over as it’s been about an hour, so the sounds of coastal nature surround me.
9. Turn left onto Argilla road, my path to heaven on Earth where neighborhoods trickle to sparsely placed houses backdropped by seaside pastures, marshes, and distant woodsy areas.
10. Park, exit the car and stroll over the dunes to one of the best pieces of nature gifted to us: Crane Beach.

The drive to Crane itself is like a metaphor for my mind and my soul as I depart the hustle and bustle of the city. The same can be said for any means of travel to a scenic spot, I suppose — actively calming down what those in mindfulness spaces call “the monkey mind” and letting those thoughts go. As you notice your mind calming, the need to let busy thoughts go becomes easy as more important thoughts claim mental space: simple thoughts of gratitude for where you are, for what is, and experiencing appreciative acceptance.

Crane Beach does this to me every time. It’s my place where I can escape to, even for just an afternoon, to fill my cup. Each time I go, the more profound the lightness is in my soul as I pass over the sand dunes giving way to one of the greatest landscapes I’ve ever witnessed.

I often prefer a day at Crane alone to thoroughly immerse myself in active meditations while I walk/ run along the shore. Isn’t it strange and beautiful how one can somehow find clarity in understanding things greater than all of us in life in moments like these?

Most recently I found myself realizing how simple the four elements of nature are, and how the beach perfectly encompasses them. This realization answered me why I love the beach so much — a question I didn’t know I needed an answer to until I found it.

Earth, Air, Fire, and Water and each of their holistic healings has been written about so many times already, but discovering the meaning on my own was monumental in some ways because it easily explained: “what life is really all about”. The elements I suppose can be self-explanatory, but I’ll dissect them anyways:

Let’s start with Earth. Our home, where every single relationship with other living beings exists. The place in our solar system where everything lined up perfectly to give the possibility to what is now all of our existence. The reason why some are now prescribed nature therapy.

The feeling of sand at the beach beneath your feet and in between your toes is delightful. The sight of green blades of beach grass contrasted against the glittering, white sand rolling toward the endless waves resetting the shoreline is surreal. Earth heals.

Air. Oxygen gives permission to our lives. The cleaner the air, the better the quality of oxygen we are getting. Exposure to clean air in places like the beach is significant and is unfortunately considered a privilege to some with difficult access to it. Places like the beach encourage us to breathe slower without us even realizing it, allowing for peace to fill our state of being. The air breathes life.

Fire. The Sun has historically been worshipped. Our source of light and heat. Our ability to exist. The heat and vitamin D we receive from the Sun produces dopamine and serotonin, both naturally make us happier. The Sun sparkles across the top of the water and travels to the ocean floor providing gorgeous refractions of light. The Sun gives us light and heat, the latter of which can be a bit too much at a place like a beach.

Which brings us here — Water. The ocean. A dear friend of mine perfectly described the ocean and the feeling you get while immersed in it as “returning to source”. I found this profound because though we do not belong in the ocean, we all started out in a water-filled cocoon of sorts. Balneotherapy in natural water sources is very real for me and always has been. Every living being relies on water to live, drink, and exist. Water provides life.

The hybrid of all of these elements at the beach answers for me perfectly why everything necessary in life can be found in the balance of this beauty at the beach. Yes, we, unfortunately, live in a society where money is king. But if we subtract that from the equation and think about the fundamentals of when humans were first becoming a part of this world, these four elements were all that we needed. Everything else was provided for us naturally. We learned how to live because of the gift of these four elements.

I’m not a religious person traditionally speaking, but I understand why people choose to believe in what they do, and I understand the power of faith. Moments of clarity like this in nature are spiritual to me, personally. Nature is my place of worship and it receives my awe and admiration every single day.

We’re unfortunately living in a time of climate change, where the Earth is reacting to the disruption of the balance of all that provides life. What disturbs and saddens me most about climate change is the inability of plants and animals to understand the consequences like humans can, and see these consequences play out in real-time. I hope we as humans and our systems of power can act accordingly to prevent climate catastrophe. I believe humans need nature to be healthy more than we need anything in this world.

I find hope and peace at the beach, though. Without human interruption, nature has everything it needs. The beach proves this over and over again for me. I cherish those moments of clarity and hope where even if for a brief moment, all the chaos in life silences and everything makes sense. Leaving the beach, I carry that feeling of fullness and gratitude.

As I make my drive back to the city, I sometimes wish I could snap my fingers and have our daily races in society make as much sense to me as those moments of perfection and clarity like those I find along the shoreline of the beach. I can’t help but be eternally grateful though. Like the layers of waves and sea foam that give a clean slate to the footprints in the sand — for now, returning to the beach to reset my soul is more than enough.

If you enjoy reading my work, please consider becoming a member by clicking this link and creating your own stories for other readers like myself! We all have unique experiences to share, and there’s always someone who finds meaning in your story. I also receive some love from each referral made!