When you stand at almost the southernmost tip of a vast continent that straddles the planet’s two hemispheres, what do you really think? It is a moment rife with unparalleled elation and stupendous wonder, of course, as you stand at the edge of land. An unending expanse of water lies in front of you, stretching far beyond your eye can behold. Of course you know you will meet land somewhere if you plunged down into it, and managed to stay afloat and alive, but disbelief steps in for that moment when you think that the vastness is endless. It is a place where oceans meet. You are speechless, muted by the sheer magnificence and magical miracle of the moment.
And how different is the confluence of the oceans from that of the rivers you have seen before! You cannot really distinguish the breaking waves of the different waters that beat against the cliffed coastline. Yet, it is the place where the waters of two ocean currents meet, whispering without sound, and mingling even as they turn away from each other. Was the southernmost tip of the African peninsula shaped and held in their hands over millions of years by their sheer unmitigated force? Or has the massive land mass kept them in abeyance, holding them on either side as a giant might hold opposing forces that seek to destroy it.
You suddenly want to share the elation, transfixed as you are in that momentous moment. But you also want to keep it just to yourself, to savour it long after it has disappeared. It is just so so special! Deep down it occurs to you, that you are lucky. You are the chosen one. It wasn’t something you had ever thought you would know or do. And least in the way it happened. But life is full of surprises, isn’t it? Cocooned in your own world, you had been busy with the ordinariness of life, content in the maneuverings of each passing day and night. Yet, when it did happen, the feeling surpassed all expectations.
Then, when you step out of that moment, you think, this is it! Nothing can be better. You have been there, done that. Never mind that you hadn’t planned for it, hadn’t expected it. It did happen, nonetheless. The mundaneness of the world around you once again grabs you by your feet, and plants you firmly on the ground, and you get busier than ever with this thing called life. You carry on living, forgetting that life can be magical beyond its humdrum madness.
Then, several years later, you are again in the midst of another miraculous moment, at another point in another place. This time you are in the ocean, venturing out even further than you did the last time. In a southernmost fjordland, among broken pieces of an ancient landmass that seems to have been born of the bowels of the earth, the magic comes to you again. This time, it is even more exhilarating. The previous experience becomes all too real once again, and grows manifold, merging with the joyfulness of the present moment. This time you think you already know it. Yet, when you actually meet the actual moment, it surpasses your expectations. It once again lifts you beyond the veils of imagination and carries you beyond time. It is a world unknown, but not fearful, and the strangeness is delicious. You soak in it, devour it, licking your lips and savouring the taste long after it becomes a distant dream again.
Years later, yet again at another point in another place, you feel on top of the world. This time the farthest you can go is in the opposite direction, as close to the Arctic Circle as you can get at the start of summer, just falling short of it because you hadn’t planned for it yet again! Life’s unexpected pleasures come, well, unexpectedly! And you feel blessed. An overbearing sense of immanence engulfs you and you soak in the joy and live the dream. The moment is all there is. You leave behind everything else and just be there, all of yourself, there, and only there.