An evening with a true Seaholic 🐾

Last November, soon saying goodbye to the lockdown, I wanted to breathe some fresh air. The place to think which has the power to soothe me, just listening and observing its beauty was THE SEA. I think this connection comes from my childhood as I was born and raised in a beautiful village by the sea in Sri Lanka. The sea was a friend of mine who knew the art of refreshing my mind and soul. Yes I'm a seaholic.

With that calling, I drove to the nearby beach to get a good dose of vitamin Sea. It was a serene evening at Mount Martha, one of the beaches in the Mornington Peninsula, Melbourne.

I was comforting myself with the waves hitting my feet and touching my heart with all my childhood memories. Unexpectedly I noticed some paw prints in the sand which lead me towards this lovely picture. I captured this beautiful relationship of earth's creatures using my smartphone.

I started observing him and his movements. His experience was quite different from mine. I felt like he's smelling the sea, dancing with that wet breath and fluently speaking in silence with the waves kissing the shoreline. Yes he too was a seaholic.

I saw a beautiful relationship bound by nature. My memories took me back to the poem studied in school for English Literature “The Sea” by James Reeves.

“The sea is a hungry dog giant and grey….“

The poet has seen the connection between these two living creatures long before understanding their similar characteristics. For me, this scenery was a huge eye-opener.

The sea behaved as if he knew the dog long before pampering and making his paws wet. There was a look of ecstasy on the dog’s face making me realise that the waves can touch his heart as well. They both knew their boundaries. I learned one thing. They have their own way of communication. Being human, we can't read their language but we can observe and learn many more things from them.

I've heard in 2004 before the tsunami wave hit Sri Lanka, dogs sensed it and fled to safety. It fathoms out this magnificent connection of nature. If we can open our minds to understand their communications with what we see and what we hear, they will drive us to marvellous life lessons.

We are all trying to find a way to get out of this pandemic, while all other living creatures spend their lives the same way as usual. Birds fly without getting quarantined, dogs bark without face masks, rivers remain flowing despite travel restrictions and trees don't require vaccines. Being human, we have to discover the basics before we search for the exotic. Nature and its lessons stay at our fingertips at all times. Nature should be a medication for the body and a soothing meditation to the soul. Like this sea-dog rapport, we all need to thrive with nature by having great conversations. We know more than half of the Earth's oxygen comes from the ocean. Nature can remain healthy without us. But we can't disconnect with nature and stay healthier.

The time I spent with nature always helped me to gather new life lessons. This evening reminded me of my childhood, my happy place and my first friend dog.

Nature is the best teacher to nurture us. We should love our mother nature surrounded by her lovely creatures.

Understanding the language of this shot was much harder than the act of capturing it. I wanted this quick capture to save in my life’s folder. It will keep reminding me of the unconditional love and connection between Earth's living creatures. And I'm eagerly waiting for the next getaway to breathe some fresh air, feel the sea and meet new paw prints to get some new insights.