Love Affair with the Gulf of Mexico

Today the subject weighing heavy on my heart is my much-loved Gulf of Mexico.  My first memory of the Gulf of Mexico was when I was a child.  Several families from our church went down to the beach in Galveston for a day.  Although our family participated in that outing, my parents generally were more inland types and going to the beach wasn’t their idea of fun.  So, I didn’t get back to Galveston until I was a teenager. 

It was on the rolling waters of the Gulf of Mexico that I had my first spiritual experience, my first encounter with God, the Universe, the cosmos—whatever you label that energy that lives in and throughout every living thing.  I must have been in my late teens when a group of us went to the beach for the day.  I don’t remember much about that day except for the blue and red canvas air mattress and what I experienced as I bobbed up and down on the swells out in the water.

First, I would paddle out pretty far.  Then, I would lie on my stomach on the air mattress and let the waves wash me ashore again.  I don’t know how many such trips I had made that day, as I was on my way back into shore, lying on my stomach, chin on my stacked hands, looking towards the beach.  Back near the shore, people were splashing about in the water and moving around on the sand and cars were rolling back and forth on Seawall Boulevard.  Yet, I realized I couldn’t hear any of the cacophony of sounds I knew were being generated by such human movement.  As I lay there, I recognized that I couldn’t hear anything but the gentle splash of the water around my air mattress and the occasional cawing of a seagull.  When I closed my eyes and could no longer see human activity onshore, it was as if I was one with that awesome energy that is the Gulf of Mexico.

I felt isolated but not alone.  In that silence, I felt this amazing energy, this powerful force.  I was so moved by the overwhelming supremacy of the entity that we’ve named the Gulf of Mexico that I fell in love that day.  As I write this today, a scripture comes to mind that would fit perfectly with my experience.  The scripture goes something like, “Be still and know that I am God.” 

Over the 40 years since then I haven’t been as faithful to the Gulf as I should have been.  While I’ve never lived further than an hour away, I haven’t visited nearly enough.  With the increase in the local population over the last four decades, the beaches became too congested for me and raising a family took my attention and… well, whatever.  I didn’t get down there as much as I wanted but every time I went, I would draw on that raw energy.  Sitting for hours as wave after wave after wave rolled in, I would never tire of watching.  Finding a spot where all human noises were blocked, I could feel my spirit heal as I listened to the organic sound of the Gulf.

So, as I hear the real news cover the sad, sad—sad beyond description—rupture that has occurred in the BP pipe, my heart fills with fear.  Normally I enjoy The Daily Show when they poke fun at some of the most serious political and social issues of our time but Jon Stewart hasn’t managed to provoke one giggle when he talks about the Gulf of Mexico.

As much as I try to shelter myself from the poison that is our modern-day media, I have seen images of the mess that is being created by this manmade blunder.  The predictions by the scientists of the potential damage to the environment are heart breaking.  The fear of what could happen if we got a major hurricane while all this oil continues to bubble up out of the broken pipe takes my breath away and not in a good way.  Underlying all of this is a fundamental sadness that comes with the prospect of the inalterable changes in my beloved Gulf of Mexico. 

But, then, being a glass-half-full kind of gal, I remember the feeling I had that day floating out there, just me and the Gulf.  The power I felt made me understand how small I was and I was awestruck in the process.  While viewing the horrific damages occurring because of human bungling in the present, I can’t forget the awesome power that I experienced all those years ago.  I trust the Gulf of Mexico has the ability to recover from whatever damages mere humans can inflict.

As I hear sound bites from the pundits, the scientists, the experts and the naysayers, I can’t help feeling that the Gulf of Mexico is greater than all of them put together.  I have faith that the Gulf of Mexico will heal itself.  As amazing as our modern science is, it pales compared to the raw energy that is our universe.  We can scurry around in our human state and put forth ideas, one after the other, on how to solve this problem, and well we should.  But I would wager that the Gulf of Mexico has already begun its transformation to deal with our stupid gaffe in ways we can’t see.  I have no doubt about that.