The last morning of a magnificent week camping at the coast, where I fell back in love with my family I just wanted to say goodbye to ocean. I grabbed my yoga mat and headed toward the waves before anyone else was moving. It was almost 8 in the morning. The sky was clear, and the mist had risen, hugging the further hills in the distance, but not the shore. I have a standard beginner’s routine, that I have been doing for quite some time. It suits me, and is not too challenging. I grabbed the simple moves from a Yoga magazine that someone had dumped at my mom’s house. Hoping the stretching and 30 second-ish holds were doing something for me, I plugged away, concentrating on deep even breathing. At least it’s a meditative quiet. The simplicity of the morning at the beach in front of the crashing waves is excellent therapy. There were only two other people on the shore and they were far away from me, walking toward the main part of the beach hand in hand. They looked like old people. They were cute, but I was concentrating on my balance. I was slightly to the north of the campsites where we were staying in Bodega Bay. I was also directly on the wet part of the beach, where the waves were slowly receding toward low tide. I always start out in the standing positions, then work my way down to the ground for the sitting and lying moves. It doesn’t take more than 30 minutes usually for the whole routine, which is probably doing the minimal health benefit, but it’s more for meditation than exercise anyway. I like the peace and solitude. It takes a few moments to clear my mind. In order to properly “Greet the Sun,” I spun East away from the ocean, and stretched up and over with my eyes closed. I do this three times every time. The “Warrior” one and two turned my head up and down the shore, which is how I spotted the old couple. I decided to flip toward the ocean for my “Tree” poses just to balance out and change the scenery. I saw a black thing come out of the water, and go back in. I see seals all the time when we go to the coast so I didn’t get too excited. I’m not knocking a good seal sighting. They’re cute too. One after the other the dorsal fins starting coming out of the water. I could see them so clearly, and they were really close. Some were in front of the bird poop rock I like to paint. I got nervous and had a bad idea that I would be the one who witnessed the massive whale suicide where they all beached themselves, but I put that thought out of my head. They were traveling. They were a giant family (like mine); and I was so lucky to be in that place at that time. I have been on a few cruises. On our cruise to Alaska, Dan and I were very lucky to see many different types of whale pods and dolphins. I’ve seen dolphins twice in the wild while on cruises to Mexico, and I recognized the way they moved immediately. These looked like giant dolphins, but they were black. I think they were Orcas. These were not the playful dolphins I remembered doing tricks in the big boat wake on the way to Mexico, jumping in and out of the water. These appeared more serious. They just moved at a steady pace, and continuously popped their fins out just out of the water to show off, or breathe. Whatever they were doing, it was beautiful. There were a lot of whales. I held the yoga move, for a full minute for each leg and then some, with a giant, happy grin on my face. I saw one man sitting near his campsite. I couldn’t tell if he was seeing what I was seeing. The couple was so far away, I hoped they were able to catch a glimpse of the whales migrating north. I estimated 40-80 whales. I didn’t count them, I just enjoyed the experience and stared into the deep water until no more miracles popped up for me. The strange thing was right before the first whale crested behind the wave I had made a prayer. I gave myself to the Great Spirit, and I said I would follow where I was led. I’m kind of at a career fork in the road, but It looks like I’m headed North. I’m happy with that, because it might be a bit cooler there. I am feeling pretty good about the move. I was a little wary, because change is hard. If the whales can do it, so can I. I was doing my yoga routine right about in the crease of the page above. And that's Poop Rock in the water. Only a few Orcas swam in front of it. The rest swam behind Poop Rock. Why is it named Poop Rock? Seagulls. The elderly couple walked down the shore in the image below. That's the Southern view. I'll do the whale painting later. I made these paintings on the beach a couple days before with a watercolor set my gorgeous and thoughtful stepson gave me for my birthday. He also gifted me the little book they're sketched in, and the paint brush.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
My mind wandersI write whatever I'm thinking in no particular order Archives
July 2023
Categories |