Fire & Ice

I share this as written in 2006, no edits; stream of consciousness words as they tumbled onto the page.

Bunker Bay. Cape Naturaliste, Western Australia. Mid-December. The height of summer. A summer that had just arrived. A good few weeks overdue.

I arrived at the resort late. Well into the evening. After a day of spontaneous decisions and fluid change. A chill to the air. Still. An extraordinary sky. Deep black. Paved with stars and planets. Flickering and twinkling. The southern Milky Way arched across the apex of the heavens. Stunningly beautiful. The kind of sky you want to lie on your back and just gaze at. Letting your imagination wander to all those galaxies out there. Pondering that eternal question…are we the only ones?

The sea a rich midnight blue. A velvet cloth draped between the arms of the rocky capes at either end of the bay. So inviting. Had it not been for the hunger growling in my belly my footsteps would have taken me straight into her waiting embrace. But needs must and it was to the restaurant I walked instead. Stunning expansive views out over the dunes to the ocean. Exquisite food. Fine wine. Gentle relaxed atmosphere. I ate. I drank. And I watched the sea and the sky.

Without fanfare, from the rulered flatness of the horizon, rose the moon. A full golden harvest moon. Rich. Fecund. Astoundingly feminine. Raised into the heavens on an invisible cord pulled by the hands of angels. Her gold shimmering reflection cast across the faintly rippled surface of the water. As she rose so she changed. A bright silver luminosity arriving to cloak her cratered surface. I sat spellbound. Entranced as always by Nature’s peerless beauty.

Woke at dawn the next day. Rejuvenated after a deep journey-filled sleep. Sunlight streaming into the villa. Beckoning fingers of warmth caressing my body. The heat already strong despite the youngness of the hour. I walked to the pool through beds of mustard yellow and rust red kangaroo paws. Black and white honey eaters flitting between their furry flowers. Sipping their breakfast of sticky sweet nectar. The breeze lacing its way through the eucalyptus trees. Rustling their leaves. A delicate song.

The pool was empty. I stood in the sun watching the breeze play on its surface before diving in. Expecting the warmth that usually greets me when I swim. Not expecting the breath to be ripped from my lungs on contact with its icy water. Shock blazed through my nerve endings. Sending adrenaline coursing through my body. I surfaced. Gasping for air. Awareness on full alert. Sensing every millimetre of my skin. A stunning sensation.

I swam hard and fast. Feeling the cold water sprinting over me. Lap after lap after lap. Its temperature rapidly tiring me. Climbed out. Feeling incredibly alive. Turned into the sun. Warming myself like a lizard on a rock. Fifteen long minutes before warmth returned to my core.

Several hours later I strolled to the beach. Two kilometres of white powdery sand. Hot underfoot. Deserted. The faintest of footprints the only hint others had been there before me. Crystal clear turquoise water. Crashing onto the shore. Crickets chirruping in the dunes. Swallows dipping. Silhouetted against a cloudless blue sky by the bright white rays of the sun. A salty tinge to the strengthening wind that ran wild across my body and tousled my hair.

The sea’s siren song was simply too strong to resist. I walked in slowly. Up to my waist. The ice cold hands of the Indian Ocean soon numbing whatever was within their reach. The rest of me baked by the heat of the noonday sun. An extreme contrast of sensation. Fire and ice. Heightening once more my awareness of my clay form. Bringing my attention to every part of me. Enlivening. Enlightening.

Once more out of the water. Shivering. I laid supine on the sand. Its warmness mirrored by the rays of the sun. Seeping slowly into my bones. Lowering my heartbeat. Relaxing my muscles. My skin spiked by needles of windswept sand. Sharp against the softness of the warmth spreading through me. My entire consciousness focussed on this glorious prickly-smooth sensation.

I wandered and wondered my way back to the villa through stands of peeling paperbarks and banks of silver santolina. A clean citrus-earth aroma filling the air. Thinking how every experience we have as humans, everything we learn, is delivered to us by the five vehicles of our senses – sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Without them our lives and our memories would be empty echoing rooms. Yet we pay so little heed to them and the beauty that surrounds us as we stride frenetically through our modern lives. On our quest for greater financial wealth, larger houses and exotic long haul holidays.

We all have Nature’s bounty somewhere on our doorstep. Even if it is only a patch of scorched grass with a single tree in the middle of the city or the arch of a starlit sky reaching over the tower blocks.

Go on. Take some time for yourself. Step outside. Don’t just look. Feel. Connect. Revel and play in the unsurpassable beauty of Nature.

Allow her to reawaken your senses. To be a balm for your weary body and a salve for your worn soul.