Visions of the past return with the Ocean’s waves
A short ferry ride from Woods Hole
brings us to paradise:
Martha’s Vineyard.
Someone asked me,
“You can’t see and your hearing’s not perfect — when you travel, do you
really notice the difference when you’re in a different place?”
My answer?
“Of course.”
Facing the ocean and feeling the wind off the water, blowing hard and then
gently.
It carries intermittent memories.
The fresh salty air takes me
from the past to the present.
I remember seeing it all
when I had eyesight
as a child and teenager.
But after 17 years without sight,
it is the details that catch my attention in a way they never did before.
Listening to the waves crash,
and then withdraw from the sands,
only to return and be sucked back
into the ocean’s perpetual rhythm.
I stoop down to touch the water,
to catch the tip of the waves.
I feel my toes greet a cascading force of waves as I lunge ahead into deeper
water.
The sun is hot against my skin.
In my dark sunglasses,
as if my imagination allows me to see,
I stare outward, standing in my dry bathing suit.
Yet I hear it,
I feel it,
I can even taste it:
The echoes of what our bodies need,
where our souls thrive,
and our hearts feel.
A kiss from the enchanting ocean.
A hug from the waves and splashes,
a sound that never ends.
Soothing and natural,
what is better?
Listen:
© 2017 by Nina Livingstone
