Oceanic Time ✨🌀✨
"The song of the sea
is the call of freedom —
the summons to surrender
to a wild power
vaster than ourselves.”
~ Lucy H. Pearce, She of the Sea
I’ve been breathing into a whole new rhythm I call oceanic time — the vast sea of consciousness I believe we are all swimming in, eternally.
I first felt the pull of this inner tide about nine months ago, when I knew it was time to take another deep dive — away from familiar structures and linear timelines. Since that moment, I’ve been tumbling in the surf, not riding waves, rather, rising to the surface occasionally to catch my breath before the next set rolls in.
Maybe this is a kind of labor — a slow, unseen birthing.
Here in Zihuatanejo, we’ve been experiencing an unexpected tidal phenomenon called Mar de Fondo — a deep sea change — for the past few days. The waves are bigger and stronger than they were when I arrived. Along the shore red flags alert, nadar peligrosa, dangerous to swim. The lifeguards tell me the ocean will be mastranquilo in the coming days.
This morning I returned to the sea, swimming out beyond the surf line to calmer water. How quickly the tides change.
“The song of the sea is a call that cannot be heard with our outer ears, but one to which our inner sea, our waters, our psyche, our soul are drawn … the insistent call to a different way of being — of fluidity, flow and freedom … into our bodies, into the depths of consciousness." ~ Lucy H. Pearce
I used to say, time will tell. Now I’m not so sure what that means — or if it still applies.
In oceanic time, direction feels uncertain. The tides move according to rhythms far beyond simple ebb and flow.
So I breathe into this new rhythm and trust I am being guided — perhaps through a new portal, an opening to new possibilities.
While in Mexico, I’ve also been recalling the revelations of Anaïs Nin, who once described the profound sense of presence she felt here. She wrote:
“Here in Mexico they see only the present … You exist by your smile and your presence. You exist for your joys and your relaxations. You exist in nature. You are part of the glittering sea … you are immersed in timelessness, only the present counts.”
I notice this too — a quality of presence more compelling than past or future. And I believe it’s in this presence that we truly exist.
For me, oceanic time is pure presence — potent, infinite, and alive.
The challenge, of course, is the pull of the familiar tides — reflecting on memories of past experiences, wondering about an uncertain future.
Can I release all that, swim in something vaster?
In the mornings after I swim, I walk barefoot along the sand, imagining my invisible footprints here from so many times past, that tides washed away.
And yet something remains — a quiet awareness of infinite presence.
“The sun, the leaves, the shade, the warmth are so alive that they lull the senses … This is perfection. There is no need to portray or preserve.” ~ Anaïs Nin
Perhaps this is what oceanic time reveals — a rhythm of presence in which nothing is ever lost, and everything coexists in its own mysterious way.
For now, I breathe with the sea, each wave a heartbeat.
REFLECTIVE WRITING PROMPTS: ✨✍️✨
Breathing into a new rhythm …
Existing in the present …
Immersed in timelessness …
Like a vast sea of consciousness …
Oceanic time feels …
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💖 Janet
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