Worlds Within Worlds

Snorkeling in Key West:

The warm water is womb-like. It cradles me, gently rocking me back and forth, holding me near its surface where I can feel the warm sun on my back. I suspend all need to be concerned with carrying my physical body. The water allows me to float soundlessly and effortlessly over the silent world below me.

Plants are waving gently in the ocean currents. Strangely shaped sponges on the ocean floor remind me of urns, and bottles, and bowls left behind after some oceanic banquet frequented by beings we have never seen. The banquet table is decorated with centerpieces of gracefully branching tree shaped plants. Small fish are darting this way and that cleaning up the remnants of the feast. An ancient lobster hides beneath the rocks, recovering from his part in the imagined festivities.

Floating away from the banquet I hover over a field of waving grasses. Camouflaged fish exactly the color of the grass and the sand below it are swimming between the blades of grass. There is a gentle slope as the grass flows up an underwater hillside. Small oval shapes like fist sized ladybugs are dotting the landscape. Tiny schools of rainbow colored fish dart about closer to the surface.

There is an entire world formed here within the space of the nurturing water. The inhabitants pay no mind to the water which surrounds them. They simply existing within it. They are just as unaware of the unseen presence that is hovering above them watching through my mask as I breathe the air from my world. They are unaware that I am quietly watching as they go about their business. They don't know I am smiling from the joy and beauty of being able to share their experience.

It occurs to me that just as the underwater world is formed within the space of the nurturing water so is our land-based world formed within the space of nurturing spirit. We are formed within the space that spirit - that consciousness - creates.

Like the underwater creatures, we go about our lives paying no mind to that which surrounds us. We simply exist within in it. Like the underwater creates we are also often unaware of the unseen presence that is watching over us as we go about our business. The unseen presence that is smiling with the joy and beauty of being able to experience us.