dr. wendy pabich

EDITION #13

Hello, Subscriber First Name,

I’ve spent the last few days camped near the beach at Half Moon Bay, California. Several times I’ve found myself setting out to look at the water, only to end up three hours later having walked the length of the yawning beach.

The solace of open spaces is real and the sea somehow possesses a hypnotic charm: the horizon draws my eyes; the repetitive pounding of the surf soothes my soul; the endless fractal patterns in appearance, process, form and structure of the beach and cliffs captivate my mind. Fine, black sand grains sketch scalloped shapes in the otherwise pale sands. The outlines of drainage patterns emerge; my mind goes to the great braided river beds of the Indus River. Gulls swoop and caw. I watch as a bind of shorebirds first pose on the wetted edge of the beach slope, one foot up, waiting, and then in seemingly-tacit agreement, race to water’s edge, pecking into the sea foam, and in concert, dart back landward.

I walk on, over undulating beach cusps; across firm, wet sandy plains; into the surf zone and out; back towards the dunes. My barefooted steps sink into soft piles of sand, one after another, connecting me to the earth, the sea, myself—a walking meditation. And, just like that, I feel centered and grounded, at home with myself and the world.

How do you find your center? What practices help you breathe mindfully, stay present, observe? Are you weaving them into your life? And, if not, what might you do to strengthen these muscles? If you’re looking for guidance, please consider joining my Water Womyn Community (below).

With water love,

Wendy

Fluidity is Strength

“Whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. What is soft is strong.”

— Lao Tzu

The sea has her own rhythm: at times she throws crashing waves onto the beach, at others, she merely laps the shore; sometimes she shows up grey and foreboding; other times, soft blue, inviting. This duality is also present in our nature. Our internal experiences ebb and flow. Sometimes we are able to reside in calm; other times, we are overcome with turbulent emotions. Our external circumstances wax and wane. Science has shown that emotions impact our perception of time, allowing perceived time to ebb and flow.

We must remember all experiences, all emotions, all conditions are ever-changing. Water is the ultimate teacher, demonstrating that in fluidity lies strength, resilience, and freedom. By accepting that all emotions are fleeting—from joy to grief, fear to anger, surprise to anticipation, learning to more easily release ourselves from the grip of emotion, focusing on positive experiences, and developing emotional fluidity, we pave a path towards freedom.

How do we balance the dualities inherent in our nature? How do we recognize and reside in calm when it is appropriate and allow and harness turbulence when it best serves us? How do we determine when we are out of balance? How do we find a pathway to rebalancing perceptions, emotions, and behaviors? How do we do this this with the fluidity of water?

This is no easy task, nor is it one we will ever fully master. Yet, because we are of the water, we do possess her fluidity, we do possess the ability to find balance. The more time you spend in practices that connect you to your inner knowingness and to the natural world, the more likely you will be able to balance duality. Ritual, meditation, stream of consciousness writing, journaling, making art, making music, dancing, moving through the landscape, the sea, the forests. All these practices help us connect more deeply to ourselves, enhance our ability to hold space for a greater range of emotions, and find greater pause between stimulus and response. And, spending time outside, in any and all capacity, connects us with other living beings and with the pulse of the planet. These encounters help us, in a very visceral way, experience unity with all things—a further confirmation that despite dualities, all is one.

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If you feel so inspired, I’d love to hear from you with feedback about the newsletter and what it brings up for you, your own water wisdom, and any other thoughts you’d like to share.