Reciprocal prompt

I See the Sea

Nature prompt: the wonders of the sea

I’m standing not far from where mariners stood centuries ago wondering what lay beyond that horizon. I’m literally at the place known as The End of the World, on the southern tip of Portugal.

I know that if I head due west I will land in New York. I’m not thinking about that. I am alone on a rocky outcrop holding my tripod and listening to the waves crashing below me.

The pounding of the surf, the salty mist and the roar of the waves send my mind spinning back in time. I am momentarily transported to my youth on the central coast of Chile.

My parents used to send me to spend summers on the coast — at my aunt and uncle’s place in Quintero — a tiny seaside community located 100Km from our inland home.

That was my introduction to the sea.

Quintero offered endless beaches and tiny secluded sandy coves to explore, but my connection to the ocean was cemented on a rocky spit just below my uncle’s home.

I would walk down at sunset and sit on a rocky throne made of huge smooth boulders that had been warmed by the summer sun. As the sun disappeared on the horizon the offshore breeze cooled the atmosphere.

The rocks would retain the heat and warm my back as I reclined looking at the crashing waves. The sound of the water hitting the rocks and exploding upwards, like fireworks, was impressive, majestic, mesmerizing.

This was a daily, solitary, meditative ritual for me. I fell in love with the sea.

For over fifty years now I have lived in seaside communities. Sometimes the sea has been my neighbor across the street, and sometimes minutes away, but never too far.

My winters in Portugal made me realize that much of my affinity for the sea is connected to big surf, to the power of the ocean, to the roar of a wave and the silence that follows as the water recedes.

That was the initial attraction, and like your first kiss, it stays with you.

Here are a couple of stories I enjoyed in Reciprocal this week:

Joyce Nielsen took me back to the Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon — a wonderful green oasis in the center of the city.

Donnette Anglin asks some important questions about the aging process after a visit to her Aunt Mavis.