*Five Minute Friday is an initiative set up by Lisa-Jo Baker over at Surprised by Motherhood. It has now been taken over by Kate over at Heading Home. The basic premise is to take the word Kate gives and write, non-stop for 5 minutes. Then you stop and post. Read more about it here. This October, I am taking part in a series based on this called “31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes”, in which we commit to writing from the prompt as usual, but everyday rather than just on a Friday. Read more here.
Sea
GO
I love living by the sea. There is something very soothing about it. I was not far from the sea when I was at university and I always found my favourite time to go was not actually on a sunny day, but on the cold winter days when nobody else would go.
To walk along an empty beach wrapped up all warm is magical. Watching the powerful waves, smelling the salty air, feeling the wind caress your hair and redden your cheeks. There is nothing quite like it for the soul to breathe.
Living walking distance from the sea again now is a dream come true. I find it a prayerful and peaceful experience to walk along beside it. It is a different experience now it’s no longer just me, now that I am pushing a pram and cannot just walk freely over the pebbles or sand and skim the water’s edge.
But that doesn’t change the beauty, the serenity, the calm that I still find there. I can appreciate the beauty and majesty of mountains and countryside, but for me, there is nothing that quite beats the sea. There is something in the lapping of the waves, the constancy of the tide, the smell of the salty water, the way it somehow manages to be predictable and yet spontaneous at the same time.
I am very grateful for its presence near me now.
It slows my breathing, calms my nerves, steadies my stress and encourages my prayer.
It speaks to me of God. I see Him in the majesty, the peace, the constancy. I hear Him in the roaring waves and the still, quiet tide. He washed me clean in baptism, and He washes me anew again and again.
I stand looking out at the wide expanse, and I am filled with awe.
I see God, alive in water.
STOP
