I have had this blog for over eight years, in one way, shape or form, and today, it is closing. Unfortunately, the server I update through will be closing down shortly.

I do have another blog, however, that I update frequently. Please follow me to the new version of SeaHeart at LiveJournal~!

You'll have to forgive my lack of frequent posts here...I've been lost in my own little world, one of imaginings and longings...one consistently and constantly (like a star), turned toward our Florida trip, next week...our pilgrimage back to the sea.

So, here is something lovely for a Friday--the lines are from the heart breakingly beautiful ballad "Neptune" by Jim Malcolm~

Neptune, I think I'm in love with the sea...

(by kristinavf)

How do I woo you and make you love me?

(by 4terra)

I'm drenched by your passion,

(by ilophoto)

Enthralled by your anger,

(by nunosousa)

Becalmed by your beauty,

(by the-challenge)

How do I make you love me...?

(by chri_sti_an)

If there's an underlying theme in the books I've written
about marine creatures, it's that man has a responsibility to
co-exist with his environment, not to try to dominate it.

~ Peter Benchley

~*~

January for me, like many people, can sometimes be tough. It's so bitterly cold, it's hard to see the end of the dark. I must drive three plus hours in the snow every single day, and we go to bed when we get home because we're so, so tired. That's mostly the part I don't like...I'm an energetic, effervescent person, but sometimes January gets the better of me.

But I know my cycles, and I know how to help myself. So I get up, brush myself off, and surround myself with soothing, comforting things. I'm an ocean girl through and through, and many comforting moments have been spent with my nose stuck in a mermaid book, or just playing with my seashells and hag stones that I've gathered over my trips to the far distant shore. I hold in my heart the happiest of tidings--we have a wonderful trip to Florida to visit an incredible friend and her beautiful family at the end of January planned...so out come the ocean movies, the sea books to get into that frame of mind...all of those happy, self indulgent moments where I can imagine I'm the scuba diving woman off the coast of California or the people who survived on Jaws...

Oh...wait. No. I don't want to be those people. Next fantasy, please! XD

I had the sheer delight of introducing Jaws to a few friends (and my own wife!) who'd never seen it before last Saturday...it was a hit! There's something about that movie, a perennial favorite, that never gets old. (It's one of the reasons I love Sharks!) There's an interesting dichotomy in the movie and in Peter Benchley's own life. Jaws relies heavily upon our human ideas behind the shark...that he truly does have a vendetta against those he devours...that he seeks out innocent people and eats them whole with malice. But as is often repeated throughout the movie, the shark is territorial, has simply found a place he likes to feed, and will remain for an unknown duration. There's nothing evil about the creature...only natural.

Of course, although this is mentioned, when Jaws was first released, it was an international hit...and far fewer people went into the water that summer. Sharks, already demonized by oceanic mythology and human kind's own fear (in some places of course, not without cause...though shark attacks are, for the most part, rare) turned a natural creature even further into a monster.

Peter Benchley, a passionate advocate for ocean conservation, could only sit back and begin to realize, as time went on, what sort of damage he had done to a creature he appreciated and--some might argue--loved.

Perhaps as an apology, later in his life, Peter Benchley strayed far from the sensationalistic thrillers he had built his career upon by writing a little book: The Girl of the Sea of Cortez. Having always loved Peter Benchley's work, I picked up an old hardcover copy of the book at a library sale a few years ago for pennies, and there it sat on my shelf. This past Saturday, very late and after the party, my wife was looking for a book to take to bed. Her hand passed over the binding, and she took it out and handed it to me. "He wrote Jaws, didn't he?" she asked. I had had this book for years, but suppose it had never been the right time, because I nodded, opened it and began to read... and read... and read... the perfect time and place for such a beautiful story.

In Jaws, everything is hard edged and darkened. In The Girl of the Sea of Cortez, everything is blue and wild and free...I could hardly believe that the same person who had painted such a terrifying portrayal of the deep had taken a different brush, a different canvas...and here was this new thing...a veritable treasure.

There are many points in the book that I cherish, and would share...but a few of the most thoughtful have consumed me these past few days. The difference between "old" creatures (those who supposedly--according to native myth--can not feel pain or joy or any other emotion, who are basically living machines. Examples would be sharks and manta rays), and those who are "new," (whales, dolphins). The story follows a young girl named Poloma who helps an injured manta ray off the coast of California...and all of her adventures because of this single act of kindness. There is so much injustice in the book...it is a very thinly veiled call of distress on the state of the world's oceans, and was written over twenty-five years ago...I wonder what Benchley might have said or written if he could see them now? The other major point that has been circling my brain (much like the schools of fish that follow Poloma) is the idea of malevolence. Peter Benchley, reiterating his ideas from Jaws that no one quite heard, states again and again that animals are incapable of malevolence: that the only creature upon this planet that would create pain just for pain's pleasure is man.

But to dwell too much on the more metaphysical and metaphorical aspects of the book would be to deeply devalue its baseness: that the ocean is teaming with beauty and life, and that it must be treasured for what it is...priceless. Following Poloma's dives, watching her interact and respect the creatures below...I can not think of a more beautiful book to while away these cold December evenings.

So, there you go...I can not recommend it enough. Thus closes a highly "Reading Rainbow" reminiscent post. ;)

What are your favorite escape books?


by swee.t.c

On the day when the weight deadens on your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance to balance you.

And when your eyes freeze behind the gray window
And the ghost of loss gets into you,
May a flock of colors,
Indigo, red, green and azure blue,
Come to awaken in you a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays in the curragh of thought
And a stain of ocean blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters a path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of lights be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow wind work these words of love around you,
An invisible cloak to mind your life.

~John O'Donohue (From To Bless the Space Between Us)


by quantis

We get it on most every night,
When that moon is big and bright...
It's a supernatural delight,
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight!

Everybody here is out of sight--
They don't bark and they don't bite.
They keep things loose, they keep it tight.
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight.

Dancing in the moonlight!
Everybody's feeling warm and bright,
It's such a fine and natural sight--
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight!

~ "Dancing in the Moonlight" by King Harvest

~*~

I've been looking forward to tomorrow's Blue Moon for weeks~ A Blue Moon is the second full moon in a month...it doesn't sound so magical when put in those terms, but for a very long time, the folklore surrounding a blue moon has been just that--pure magic. The best part? It comes on New Year's Eve. AND it's a partial eclipse!! If a Pagan went shopping at the Grocery Store of Cosmic Delights, you couldn't hand pick something lovelier and more auspicious...all nestled at the cusp of the coming year~

I was driving into work this morning, sipping at my warm latte and catching glimpses of the new born sun as it slipped over the edge of horizon. Steam rose from my cup in that fractured sunlight when the radio almost smiled at me: one of my favorite songs came on: "Dancing in the Moonlight" by King Harvest. I really don't care who sees me when those first few notes start playing--I turn it as loud as it can go, sing along, wiggle in my seat and grin from ear to ear. It's probably the happiest song in existence...over the years, I've equated it to everything from witches to werewolves and all that lies in between, but in the end it's just a simple song, filled with joy. Everybody's feeling warm and bright, I sang, turning off my exit, it's such a fine and natural sight...

It's a fitting anthem for tomorrow--New Year's Eve. The significance we humans give that date is fierce...it's filled with anticipation and hope and everything is superstitious. Be with the one you love at midnight! Give out kisses, sing as loud as you can, hold hands, keep the dark at bay. It's quite similar to the Pagan ideas behind Christmas--a celebration in the dark for the light. But this isn't necessarily the light of the sun, but the light of a brand new year...

What wishes are you going to make tomorrow? If you're Pagan, have you given any thought to the magic you want to make? As for me, I'm tickled pink at the fact that it's a Blue Moon and a full moon, all on one of the most special days of the year...I've planned my magic, made my lists, gathered together the ingredients for love and joy, made miracles and just lovely things...all for the coming year.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to drive to my favorite local coffee shop and set up my laptop. It's across the road from a Civil War era graveyard, and the monolithic trees and gently sloping crests of snow inspire me on any ordinary day...but this will be the new year's Eve, and as I bring out my laptop--all the usuals for a day of writing--there will be something special to the well worn ritual. As my fingers pause on the keys, getting my bearings, I'll sigh, breathing in the heady aroma of coffee and milk, sugar and snow...and then I'll begin writing. And perhaps I won't notice it, at the corner of my subconscious, this new year circling, these new wishes coming, these old magics swirling...but perhaps I will.

Because a few hours after that, I will be standing with my little sister in the cold, white meadow, hands linked as we make magic for the coming year, weaving a spell for her desires, and then beginning my own.

And that will be the perfect ending to a perfect year-long day, and when twilight comes (as twilight is wont to do), we will raise a glass in its honor. And our own.

I probably won't be updating tomorrow--so this is the last I'll "see" you before the new year. May it be filled with magic, inside and out--and I hope you find supernatural delight~


by missbrittt