On the Ocean Wave

A Life on the Ocean Wave is a poem written by an American editor and writer, Epes Sargent, and published in 1838.

Whether we have a nautical background or not, somehow it feels it is part of our national psyche. There is something familiar and known about the song, as we live in a country that calls an island its home.

The chorus begins:
    A life on the ocean wave,
    A home on the rolling deep,
    Where the scattered waters rave,
    and the winds their revels keep.

When we begin a life that is rooted in a contemplative practice, making meditation part of our daily routine, it is as if we have set out on a rolling ocean. We sense it is a new journey, there is distance to travel and adventures to come and yet it is always about riding along on the wave that is the one we are on right now. As with the wind and waves on the ocean we submit ourselves to the life force of God, the one who created the seas and is present on and in the water.

Each morning it is as if in the words of a verse of that poem
    Once more on the deck I stand,
    Of my own swift gliding craft,
    Set sail! and farewell to the land…

We make the choice to take up our meditation each day in whatever way we have found to be meaningful for us. It may be at home in a room, it may be with others in a group online. We can choose to repeat a mantra or contemplate with an image. We may run joyfully along the jetty and jump into the bow of the boat. Or some days perhaps, we feel that we have to drag ourselves reluctantly up a steep gangplank and heave ourselves over the side, but we make a start.

Unlike the need to be shipshape when on a vessel at sea, there are minimal rules, no goals to be achieved, no straining to a horizon. We are all beginners and are not setting out to be measured or improve. We simply begin to float in the love of God. We discover a new way of being, one that is not tied to land, but can make a new journey over oceans.

In the holy time of contemplation, there is peace to be found. The life on the ocean wave will be variable. Your life journey takes you through times of calm and days filled with sunshine, but there will also be storms, raging winds, threatening clouds ahead to travel through. For those who have taken the decision to spend time in meditation whatever the currents of life we take the peace of those meditation moments with us. Although situations may not feel any different, we are changed to sail into them more calmly, in ways that are more accepting and enabling, to ourselves and to others. This is the gift of meditation, we cannot explain it. It cannot be forced, only accepted. The gift of meditation doesn’t need artificial intelligence. It is suffused with the wisdom of God’s Holy Spirit. It is this kind of understanding that we can trust to help us navigate the ocean of life.

Meditation and contemplation also lead to prayer for others. People and situations may drift into our mind during meditation or we may more actively set aside further time to specifically bring them before God in prayer. Often we may not know what to pray. The circumstances may be complex, desired outcomes may be confused in our minds and we are only left with the feeling that we want to place particular persons into God’s loving care. A helpful metaphor is to place that person into a boat and gently allow them to float along on the waves. They remain part of our life, but do not weigh us down or cause us to sink. If these prayer intentions arise during meditation, this is so very likely as we all carry others along with us and indeed are called to do so. During our meditation time it is not that we push them away or react to them with our own emotions. We can simply place them in a boat and trust them to the care that we discover in Jesus, the love that leads all vessels of life to their Creator.

If we had never seen the sea it would be very hard to  explain it to a totally land based creature. There is a story of a monk and his novice walking on the beach as
the tide is coming in. The novice has so many questions about the sea, where does it go to? Is the water very cold? What does salt water taste like? The monk turns to the novice and as the sea has now risen right up to lap at their feet, he gently pushes the other into the water. He falls in fast, tastes the sea water for himself, forgets to worry about where the sea is going to and learns by experiencing it. This is how it is with meditation. We can read about it. We can ask others  questions about their practice. We can research the ways of trying it. But it is not until we jump into its waters for ourselves, that we begin to better understand all its depths, what it is like to float in its healing and release.