The sea is one of the most beautiful and mysterious places in the world. Whenever I’m at the beach, I always find myself staring into the vast, blue world that stretches out into the horizon. It may sound strange, but more often than not, I prefer sitting in the sand and listening to the waves rather than going for a swim. The sea is one of those places where I feel completely at peace, content to watch the world go by.
This feeling of respite when looking at the sea is not a new thing for me as I get older. It has been a consistent feeling throughout my life, and I never get tired of it. I never form a new perspective because the current lens that I have is already perfect. The sea always has that mysterious, spiritual effect on me. I don’t know why that is, and I may never know why. However, that is a good thing for me. There are some mysteries in life that we will never discover, and I have accepted that. Maybe the peaceful charm of the sea persists throughout history precisely because we never know much about it.
I am speaking purely from a personal perspective. I know that each of us has our perspective about the sea. Fishermen and sailors might love the sea more than I do, but they may view it more as a source of livelihood; whereas, for me, I look at the sea as a way to relax, to clear my thoughts.
Mysterious Beauty
I sometimes think about why I find the sea so beautiful. In its essence, it is just a huge body of water that moves in its own direction, unencumbered by time. But every time I visit the shoreline, I always feel the same amount of mysteriousness and awe that I have already felt when I was a child. The blue hue of the sea…it never fails to captivate me.
Many of the stories I have written have been inspired by the sea. I don’t mean that most of my stories are nautically related. Instead, when I look at the waves, I undergo some sort of trance and a new story is slowly forming itself in my mind. This is another reason why I find the sea so mysterious. It has the power to spark my imagination. Thoughts, ideas, and stories that I have never thought about before become easily apparent in my mind. It almost feels like they were buried deep in my subconscious all along. It is an astonishing feeling.
The mysterious beauty of the sea also has a different effect on me depending on the time of day. If I visit the beach in the morning, I feel like the most positive person in the world. The morning breeze, the pale blue color of the sea, and the gentle sound of the waves fill me with so much hope and promise for the future. I feel as if I can do anything and be anything that I want.
Looking at the sea during sunset, a feeling of wonder and awe for nature rises inside me. I feel very appreciative of the earth we live on. The golden hues of the sun, bringing colors to the sky, land, and sea, turn nature into something heavenly. At that moment, I keep on realizing the same thing throughout my life: that the world is beautiful, and one of the greatest joys in life is in appreciating that beauty.
At night, when I cannot see beyond the shoreline except when the moonlight is bright, I feel somber and reflective of my life, the experiences that I have undergone, and the choices I made. I think this mood happens because of the pervading darkness that surrounds me on the shoreline, accompanied by a chilly wind. Nevertheless, I can still hear the waves, even though I cannot clearly see them. That calming feeling of the water splashing on the sands, it helps me realize that no matter how dark my surrounding gets, the world still revolves around and life moves on.
Looking back at all my experiences with the sea, the mysterious feeling it consistently conjures on me is because that I haven’t been spending that much time beside it. I don’t live by the shoreline so I only visit the beaches rarely. Maybe if I spend more time beside the sea, my perspective will evolve; or maybe it’s because of this rarity that the sea always puts me in a trance whenever I visit it. I must visit more often because I am excited to learn more.
What about you, dear reader, besides the common vacation activities, what kinds of feelings arise when you visit the sea?
Philosophy of Appreciation 