This is the best thing I’ve ever seen. Full stop. is me talking about this documentary, lived by South African filmmaker Craig Foster. It turned me inside-out. I’ve been sitting with it for weeks, savoring all those deep sea pearls my soul gathered along the way.
Here are eight take-aways. Yes, eight.
We are part of nature, not separate from it. There is an inner stillness we seek and find in the natural world, a world from which we have become disconnected. That inner stillness is within us as well. Look at any piece of “nature” around you - a shell, a stone, a tree, a piece of fruit - and notice its stillness of being. Do you know what that is? It’s the confidence of becoming exactly what you were meant to be without spending one moment questioning it through a lens of unworthiness. It’s where we move beyond believing to knowing. A realm beyond words.
We find ourselves in the deep places. This may be somewhat metaphorical, but the ocean is deep. Returning to the love of your childhood is deep. To stop striving for the life you think you need is deep. Committing to a practice of returning over and over is deep. Trusting something new that comes into your world is deep. Giving yourself over to what is is deep. Being an observer with enough respect to not disrupt a natural system is deep. All of this takes us beyond the social conditioning that has built up, layer upon layer upon us, suffocating our inner freedom. We shed those layers, knowing that somehow the experience requires us to be bare-skinned in the holy space we enter.
What we see in the world is a reflection of ourselves. This is a tough one for some people to grasp because it sounds egoistical, yet requires us to move beyond ego. Basically, every moment, every brittle star, every snail in our world - actual or metaphorical - is there to teach us a lesson to bring us more into alignment to our dynamic wholeness - full of ever-changing colors, shapes and textures.
The wisdom of generations lives inside of us. This is a wonder. We can live from embodied wisdom - a wisdom that surpasses the mind’s ability to comprehend. And we can grow that wisdom through our own interactions with the world in order to pass it on - to our children, perhaps, but also as a contribution to the collective wisdom of the world. It will amuse us, guide us and heal us.
We cannot bypass pain. It may cause us to hide under a rock for a week, pale and limp, but that space is a healing space. Something new will grow if we allow the time and space for it. This cannot be rushed, and it is something that we will continue to live into even after we come out from under the rock.
We are part of a larger story. It’s humbling to know that we are only one heartbeat in the rhythm of generations. It’s humbling to know that we are one part of the larger whole of our society, and live our singular life in contribution to that whole while simultaneously allowing ourselves to be shaped by it.
Be gentle.