The Farthest Shore - Finding Balance

I took this photo in Praia do Carneiro, Portugal in 2018.

_{All photos were taken by me at Praia do Carneiro in Portugal in 2018.}

Stones balance on the farthest shore like granite bones. Tiny people explore the quay as spray washes my face.

The sky glowers, heavy with potential rain, frowning at the escapees of lilliput, perspective diminishing by degrees.

The sea lays siege to the land as wailing wind and salt-kissed sand fill the air. Misted veils of shale-kissed spray thunder as plastic bottles are dashed against the lee of the bay, exiled from their castaway home.

At the centre of all this motion, I stand alone like stacked stones. Empty and still in the face of the ocean's groans and whiplashed pleas. On the edge of an abyss, balance persists, like desiccated trees drinking their last. Pointing skyward, uncaring of what is to come, or what has come to pass.

I came across this prose poem in my writing folder yesterday, and it took me no time to hunt down the pictures that accompanied these words. After spending some time processing the photos to black and white using GIMP photo editor I sat and thought about the meaning of this seemingly innocuous entry into my writers' diary.

The central theme is one that I have lived by for a while now - balance. Finding balance in my life has come about through meditation and focusing on my goals without attempting to grasp them through attachment, which is definitely a difficult undertaking. Something like trying to grasp a spinning leaf in the breeze.

But as I thought about that trip to Portugal (only 18 months prior to the pandemic) it dawned on me that there was a further meaning to this piece of writing. This trip was my last taste of travel before the world went into lockdown, and perhaps there were some future echoes in the content of the poem. A wisp of smoke from the collective unconscious, hinting at the storm to come.

... or perhaps it was just a coincidence and I'm reading far too much into the whole thing 😂 Regardless, I was in a philosophical mood so I thought I'd cast these thoughts out like a message in a bottle into the blockchain ocean of hive and see where they land.

All images in this post were taken by me in Portugal, in 2018.

Thanks for reading 🙂

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