How Do We Tell The Sea That We're Drowning On Land?
When life and dreams collide, what do you choose?
Earlier today, I read a beautiful one-line poem that both spoke to me and shattered me.
“How do we tell the sea that we are drowning on land?”
I tried and tried and couldn’t find the source, but my hat tip to whoever wrote these words. We go through our lives saying words that don’t mean a thing, but every once in a while, someone will use the same words to say something extremely profound and relevant to the human experience that will knock the wind out of us.
Sometimes, I feel the grief of our existence in my mind, but the grief of abandoned dreams sits deep in my bones.
Sometimes, this awareness is tiring. Often, it feels like a call to be open and direct with my grief, despite my absolute resistance to do so. This bravery asks for absolute vulnerability, a kind of honesty that cuts through my veins, letting me bleed on paper.
On some days, I shut down like a clam, feeling safe in the self-imposed darkness - it feels good on my nervous system. On some days, I believe that this brutal honesty is necessary because it is contagious. When we are honest, we invite honesty in our interactions as well. We invite and allow people to bring their true selves to the table, to be equally vulnerable. A world led by heart is a world worth living in.
How do we tell the sea that we are drowning on land? I don’t know. Sometimes, I find myself drowning, holding on to the piece of paper where I wrote all my dreams as a young one in the world, the ink now steadily getting washed off the page and my memory of the dream. Occasionally, I find an idea, a dream that acts as a raft for a while before life sweeps me in another direction, and I suspect a lot of us feel the same way.
Some shrug it off as life, and let those dreams die without holding a funeral for them.
Some treat their dream like a beating heart that if not cared for, will collapse and kill them as well.
If there is a magic that saves us, I am yet to know of it. But have you told the sea that you’re drowning on land? Did you hear back? Or did you find the universal secret to save yourselves from drowning on land? I’d love to hear about it.
Here’s a cool story I read today:
A lot has been spoken of Netflix’s new show Adolescence, and rightly so. Like others, I watched it very quickly and was truly sad for this fictional family - not just because it is gobsmacking how quickly the internet of today is poisoning young men, but also because it made me sad to see that so many young men do not have a mentor or peer in older men who will guide them the right way. If there is a young adult male in your life, I hope you will take the time to talk to them about their digital lives and the insides of their minds.
Mid-Day Mumbai ran an interview with a 15-year-old from Mumbai, India to see what he thought of masculinity, intimate relationships and toxicity in relationships and like the kids say, we stan a self-aware king.