Hello Biddy,

Today I am writing to you away from my home. I’m on the eastern coast of my country and a lot closer to the equator, the weather is warm and humid and the smell of the tropics is in the air after an evening rain. There are flowers and frogs, sand and sea and a population of transient surfers catching each available wave.

I see in your country this week the storms have been furiously battering the coast and Ireland’s winter coat is well-worn.  The long nights and short days may have been safe harbour for conversations around your fire for the inner landscapes to be revealed. No doubt those coming for healing weren’t just bearing external wounds. The outer is often a reflection of what might be happening on the inside. I recall and have written before about a woman I knew who once her husband left so did the pain in her neck!

Mother Nature is speaking loudly as this photo shared by @robinhood66 shows. She is carrying her message to us on the sea and the wind.

@robinhoods66

Storm County Clare

When I’m in the surf, I love to feel the power of the sea, the tidal power pushing me forward, pulling me back with a steady rhythm, Sister Sea massaging me and reminding me to trust in the flow, up and down, in and out.  I wonder Biddy, if in your kit bag of care if you offered massage or prescriptions that included contact with the sea? The sea has healing powers the salt in the air, those wonderful positive ions coming off the spray on a winter’s day, the cooling refreshment it offers on a hot day among its many properties.

The power of the sea is so well known, the tragedy it can bring too – the Asian tsunami and shipwrecked refugee boats come to mind immediately. I am more interested in turning around a ridiculous refugee policy in my homeland than recreating the Titanic as is the pet project of a mining magnate politician. All of my kind (i.e. white) came to this land on a boat in the first instance, planes have replaced boats and the ships of the air now make their way through the oceans of clouds.  The arrival on this island continent of strangers has reaped havoc on those first nation peoples as destructive as any wild storm, and the effects have been relentless though across generations.  Restorative justice is still to come.

My ancestors legacy left for us to make good. One of the actions I am taking is to speak up for the recognition of Aboriginal peoples in our Constitution. For me this is a vital step and a pre-condition for Australia to become a republic. We can’t set ourselves free from our colonial past until that past recognises the damage caused by those who travelled on the sea to these shores.  I am heartened by the Recognise campaign and add my voice when I can – trusting my online activism contributes a little salve to the hurt. My individual efforts are a drop in the ocean, but every drop will build a wave.

Biddy I wonder what healing prescription you might have offered and if you too looked to the sea for inspiration and ingredients? Did you ever stir up a storm in a teacup Biddy and then see the tempest unfold?

In my part of the world Biddy you are either a saltwater person or a freshwater person – depending on if you were born on the coast or inland. When I go to the sea for advice, the power of the water element is deeply appreciated by this clay body and I am grateful for being a saltwater person.

Sunset southern ocean