A Question for the Sea

You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.

- Rumi

Recently a colleague of mine spoke about a moment she shared at the beach with her son. While watching the waves of the deep sea, her son turned to her and asked “if you could ask the sea a question, what would you ask?” Aren’t kids just the best?!

The sea is wise to have posed this question through a child, for only a child could ask such a profound question and in such casual fashion. If asked by an adult it would have been met with uncomfortable surprise, practically cringing at the vulnerability of wonder. But a child’s innate curiosity has the power to spark our own imagination and we can’t help but wonder outside the bounds of logic. 

My inner child seemed to love this question and I thought about it hard. For some reason, it felt important and I wasn’t about to waste it’s time. If I could ask the sea a question, what would I ask? My inner child bounced up curiously and asked, “Do you have mermaids that live in you?” No, no that’s ridiculous, I thought, of course it does. Another question popped into my head, “Are you happy?” No, no don’t ask that, of course it is, because the sea just ‘is’. 

As I watched the waves crash in and flow back out to meet itself once again, I couldn’t help but compare it to the rise and fall of my own emotions; the ebb and flow of being deeply human. As I succumbed to the presence of the sea, I was reminded that I am not my emotions nor is the sea concerned with them. Like the sea we are vast and deeply mysterious, yet to explore our murky and wonderous depths. It was in this divine recognition of oneness that the question came to me like a clean intuitive hit.

And so, I asked the sea, “what can I do for you?” I felt my chest pulse with warmth in anticipation of an answer. It arrived immediately and with it, a gift. In my heart, I felt the words ‘enjoy me’ and in my mind’s eye, I saw an image of myself - my human form. She held a mirror and said “enjoy me”. 

If you could ask the sea a question, what would you ask?