Answers Within Currents

~Deana J. Tavares

What does it all mean? These Stars and Stripes proudly blazing in the wind for some. Not for all? We have all left many things behind within the ocean’s wake. Names have stepped off of planks and have been lost at sea, never to be found again. Cultures salted, white washed in the steamy afternoon sun. Many different backs were left wet after floating upon adversities’ waves. And this flag’s fabric cultivated, harvested by slaves.

I remember their journey. That perilous excursion. The salt still remains in cells and platelets. Inside it swims through canals from my stomach to my chest. Tiny boats lodge themselves in my throat, on occasion. Did we not travel those same shores? Although for some it was to willingly explore, but still a new shore. How can we ever only open the doors to some when we have all traveled across the very same expanse with salt stained cheeks?

 I sometimes wonder why we all feel such a deep pull to vast ocean realms. We are all drawn there to relax, soak in the warmth, and the stillness. Maybe the reason lies in the fact that it connects us all. The ocean is a true melting pot where the bones of all of our ancestors have been scattered, joined together upon barnacles, and laid to rest. Possibly they call to us through their tiny striped lucky rocks and shells that we so proudly display at home upon our shelves. We all feel the magnificent magical pull of life as well as our smallness when crashing waves ferociously roar.

It is in the ocean where war has been hushed by the peaceful silent darkness below, though light still streams in with bright beams.  Submerged tanks become mere habitats for new life, living in harmony together, as they should be. Commercialism is sometimes questioned by thunderous waves, and the waves have the final say. There is no currency. Brightly-colored species mingle together sharing space and find their flow within calm and rough currents. In the silence and stillness answers can be found.  Down within the depths there is a weightlessness from our heavy, heavy world where only the ocean speaks and we must listen. Maybe it does have all of the answers and we…should… just….Listen!