Becoming mindfully connected to the Universe

by Grethe Lindemann
(USA)

The first "place" I ever recognized as sacred I experienced when I was but a young teenage girl, commanding a good-sized sailboat under sail on the Atlantic Ocean - I being the only one on deck sailing the vessel all through the night, far away from sight of land. The night was clear and the sky was filled with uncountably many stars including the Milky Way in its full glory. The pulse of the ocean took over me... it was alive. It’s a pulse that can’t be known near the shore, or in a lake or a river. It was the pulse of the Earth. It was so evidently alive. And deep. There was immense infinitely absorbing silence, yet also a spectrum of beautiful sounds including the creaking of the sails; the rich feeling of the breezes, the motions of the boat, the engulfing waves; the amazing smells. The vision of it all was spectacular... the stars, the moving shapes all around lit from the heavens, the phosphorescence in the water, the dolphins who played alongside - it was a gift to me from the universe. It WAS the universe embracing me within its magnificence. It was, and is, alive. Its immensity in terms of expanse, experience, wisdom, power... made me a believer from that point forward, with all of my being, in the fundamental life force it holds.