365 Inspirations—329: An Octopus's Garden

The scariest fish in the garden!

"I'd like to be, under the sea
In an octopus's garden in the shade
He'd let us in, knows where we've been in his octupus's garden, in the shade."—The Beatles

There is really NOT much to do in an octopus's garden except float around and meet other things floating around, like tropical fish, turtles, sea creatures, dolphins and, if you are lucky, an octopus.

Yesterday I drove to the Walgreens photoshop nearby and handed the guy my rinky-dink, disposable camera that I got on sale at an ABC store in Hawaii. The thing was cheap and I expected to get all my photos back black.

I'm so use to digital where you can check right away and delete. I could barely see through the camera lens on this thing and I wasn't sure if it was even taking pictures or if I was self-winding it in the right direction.

I was surprised to see the colorful pictures of fish on the photo CD I picked up. Here are some of my pics from that day:

Looking at them, I remember that day clearly. I was in an octopus's garden, yet I didn't see an octopus.

It's so quiet and peaceful down there. No one is in a hurry and even the little guys that swim fast, do so with such grace and ease. A few of them would come right up to my mask as I did the breast stroke while using my flippered-legs as an engine.

I was gliding around in that garden just as smoothly as the fish. I was becoming one of them. I could hear my own breath in my snorkel. Sometimes I'd try to dive down deeper to the white, yellow and pink coral where hundreds of brightly painted fish swirled in circles around a tasty morsel in the coral, but my snorkel would fill up with water.

I popped up to the human world only to realize, with my head now up above the water, that I had no idea where I was. Where were the others?

"Hey, over here," I heard Yoon shout, waving his hands in the air.

I turned my body and pointed it  in the direction of where they were sitting on the volcano rocks and pushed off with my legs.

I didn't want to come up again. It was so warm and cozy under there. I could have stayed for hours. I would have stayed for hours but my arms and legs were getting tired.

Have you ever been snorkeling? Where did you go?

365 Inspirations—236: A Wedding on Puget Sound

"But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls."—Khalil Gibran

Today we went to a wedding on Puget Sound on Tulalip Indian Reservation. It was very nostalgic for me because I lived there when I was ten years old for about a year and hadn't been back since then!

I wanted to find my old house and show Yoon, but there wasn't time. I promised we'd come back and I'd show him.

Yoon was the officiator at the wedding and he was great! He chanted a few Buddhist chants from his monk days and even told a few great jokes. Everyone laughed.

The most wonderful part of the ceremony was the tide that was slowly coming in. The bride and groom's sandals were completely submerged in water, but it felt the merging of two worlds—the land and the sea and the worlds of these two people. Yoon was on a platform so his feet were not in the water, but after he finished the chanting, there was the slight dilemma of how he'd get from the platform to land. One of the groom's friends said, "Yoon, hop on Eric's back and let him bring you over to the shore." And without further adieu, Yoon hopped on the groom's back and was taken safely to land!

The day consumed with food, drinks, good conversation, acro-yoga, a fire in a fire pit and a burning sunset. Just gorgeous!

 But the best part of the evening was a dozen huge paper lanterns that were lit by the wedding guests and set free to soar up above Puget Sound,  the tree line and beyond. At one point I wasn't sure which were paper lanterns and which were stars.

It was a beautiful day with lots of love.

Have you ever been to a memorable or unique wedding?