Like the soothing rhythm of our original womb, the sound of the ocean’s constant ebb and flow forms the reassuring backdrop to our lives in a world gone upside down, inside out and, frankly, quite mad.
How blessed then are we who live in the coastal zone within earshot of one of the greatest natural gifts on the planet.
There is little that the beach cannot soothe – at least for a while.
When the white noise clatters and yammers and howls about one’s head, the blue noise lulls us back into mental calm.
As the inexorable virus-bedevilled days drag on, calamities pile up upon one another and the world’s foundations appear no more solid than a borer-infested wooden tower, still we find the ever-constant ocean and its sweeping shores.
In summer, the cloying humidity over land is cut by the cool sea breeze. Winter lends a crisp sheen to the dew-frosted coastal grasses as mists rise off the warm waves.
Sparkling days, one after the other, beckon us to the beach to soak up more of nature’s medicine and walk off our worries and our woes.
Miles of untrammelled sands swept clean and new each day for our footprints to discover over and over again, scattering ghost crabs at our footfall.
Dense virgin forest fringing the dune cordon and rocky outcrops and inshore reefs offer habitats for a myriad of marine creatures.
Porpoises, whales, turtles and sharks play, feed and procreate in the crystal waters.
Wave after rolling wave, the healing waters break in aquamarine tunnels. Just perch on a dune and stare… it is positively mesmerising to peer into the depths of this gigantic watery world filled with every colour under the sun – red, gold, pink, silver, black, green, grey, white… and yes, a thousand shades of blue.
In this great and magnificent iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage Site, the further north we go, the less we see of human interference.
It’s just you, the sea and the soaring sky, and for a while at least, troubles take wing on the ocean winds.
I feel truly sad for those who live far from the coast, especially now that planet Earth we knew has morphed into an unrecognisable landscape.
The seascape, at least, remains timeless. Now, more than ever, planet ocean is both church and comfort. Amen to the #bluespace.
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