The Quick and The Dead

Floating in the sea, halfway between heaven and earth, is it possible to draw closer to the people who've left? I'd like to tell them that their lives mattered, that they are still loved.

Like many born under the sign of Cancer, I’ve had a strong urge to plunge into the sea lately. To scuffle sideways off to my secret hiding place in the sand. If I am poked or prodded while I’ve retreated into my shell, I will fuss, boxing at nothing with my outsized pincers.

In the water, halfway between heaven and earth, I feel safe. Salted and washed clean. Almost present. But still clinging to what came before and what lies ahead.

On days I cannot reach the sea, I feel stretched between the eternity of the June sky – that blue mirage of beauty, the unknown beyond – and the scarred reality of the rough earth beneath my feet.