It isn’t very often that I find myself in a place with nothing in sight but ocean and sky, not a shadow of land to be seen. Only twice - the two times, by the gift of my grandparents, I have been on a cruise and experienced the surreal wonder of being aboard something like a mall amidst the ocean.
Cruises are curious because you sometimes forget that you are on the ocean at all. Unless you catch a glimpse of endless blue through the window, unless you feel the sudden rocking motion of less than glass-smooth seas. Unless you find yourself on the less populated lower deck, leaning on the handrail, looking out and below.
It’s hypnotizing, this looking, because at first glance there is little enough variation - the ocean, stretching out blue and flat; the sky, a different shade of blue, above it. Then the distant line where the two shades of blue meet - or, at the bookends of the day, deep blue meets indigo, rose, and gold. Beautiful, if “not much.”
Yet you find yourself looking, struck by one thing, then another, until your thoughts begin to feel like the waves.
And that is how you find yourself, utterly still, staring at the ocean as if you were watching a movie, with a cruise ship playing an actual movie somewhere behind you. And if you were to number your thoughts...
1. The utter vastness.
How can water stretch so far in either direction, yet be so deep below the surface?
2. Is there really a whole world of living things beneath it?
*this question is easily, magnificently answered by snorkeling.
3. I can't imagine the sheer depth.
Imagine the ocean trenches, miles deep. A mile's depth in water? Running a mile seems distance enough.
4. The vastness of God
Begin humming "How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure..."
5. Consider the creativity of God
How did He imagine this shade of blue? And why create such deep waters?
6. Look out to the horizon, it seems like a glimpse of eternity
What if this was all, and it just kept going on forever?
7. Contemplate the concept of a horizon
Isn't it strange that wherever you go, it ends in a horizontal line?
8. It would be easy to believe the earth was flat.
Just keep going on the flat surface of blue water, and eventually it would end abruptly...
9. The irresistible feeling that there's something mysterious and wonderful if you just keep going, and get behind the horizon.
Look at the horizon and sea and suddenly think...
10. "Behind the Sea"- Panic! at the Disco
"And we're all too small/ to talk to God"
11. And suddenly feel very small indeed.
It's a cruise ship after all, and you aren't far from the coastline - there's miles and miles more ocean.
12. Imagine one's smallness and the ocean at night.
*shudder*
13. Think of the people who crossed the ocean and did not know where they were going
And saw only the ocean and sky for days and days and days...
14. Gradually become attracted to the surface of the water
How can it seem so smooth, but be so rippled? No two ripples are alike.
15. Follow the ripples and the waves with your eyes
The movement is endless, you try to follow the rhythm.
16. Drift to the wake of the boat
The water foams and turns deep blue, turquoise, and white. It's mesmerizing.
17. Take in the colors of the sunrise or sunset, at this time of day.
Your camera cannot capture them, and you are regretful and grateful all at once.
18. The beauty makes you ache...
What are we to do with beauty? Why do we long to capture it?
19. Cue interruption
Recollections of where you are, why you are here, and what you meant to do next.
20. Tear yourself away.
You must have been hypnotized.
