I grew up in a severe and drafty 19th Century farm house with high ceilings and a wood-burning furnace. My dormered room faced out over the tangled old orchard, and beyond that, the grey green sea.

That sea was the Bay of Fundy, site of the world’s most extreme tides. Every day the green sea rushed away to reveal great expanses of glossy mudflats dotted with wooden fishing boats resting awkwardly on their keels. And every day it rushed back, inundating the bay with rusty coloured waves, buoying up the little fat bellied boats again. This daily pulse ruled my world as a child. My first words were “tide coming up!”

Now in my middle years, my life is still ruled by tides. I live on an island in the Salish Sea, many thousands of miles away from the Bay of Fundy, but also a place of extreme tides.

The truth is, my being is a place of extreme tides. In many ways I have experienced my life as a series of inundations, predictable but still overwhelming. I have survived trauma, I have made awkward peace with Major Depressive Disorder. I have built three marriages and dissolved two. Those are my particulars. A life and a person more given to extremes than some. Yet many of the tidal changes of my life have nothing to do with these particulars. They are the tidal changes and pulls shared by all women, the powerful realities of being alive in a woman’s body.

Like it or not, our lives are often ruled by the deep sea changes of our bodies; from the first overpowering waves of adolescent desire to the saline and milky years of early child rearing, right through to the shore we find ourselves on now, at menopause.

What is your relationship to this powerful ebb and flow of your womanly body and soul? How have you experienced the inundations and the slack tides of your life? Is your experience of your inner rhythm a struggle, or a dance? Or both? This week at Vivid we are taking a deep dive into the waters of life, exploring Rivers and Tides. We invite you to explore with us, and spend the week in watery contemplation. You could:

~ Take time to be in, on, or near the water. Watch the tide come up and the river flow. Lie on the shore with eyes closed, and listen. Immerse yourself.

~ Spend time in your journal, exploring your life in terms of the tidal ebb and flow. What are the stories of your own inundations?

~ Seek out poetry and art that honour the rivers and oceans. Check back here on Wednesday for our own selections.

~ Learn about the condition of our dear earth’s natural waters. Volunteer or contribute to an organization devoted to healing the oceans. Remember that our own bodies are only as healthy as the body of the earth.

Wishing you a beautiful, flowing week!

xo
Bronwyn