Happy Christmas sea bathers

This is a very short-and-sweet message to you all as I've just found out I'm in charge of the cooking tomorrow plus last minute guests tonight! As I say and have always said, my life would be far less rich for having you all in it. As the ups and downs of life have ebbed and flowed this year, so the tides have lapped upon our shores as we've gathered - whatever the weather - to take stock, share food and stories. And whenever felt right for each of us, we have dipped our toes in the ever present sea that surrounds this land here in Selsey - mostly because it just feels so good. Like a reset, the cold envelops us, washing away our worries and our fears if just for a moment, so that the troubles we face as a collective and as individuals seem, for those moments, like a dim and distant memory.

One of my favourite poems the encapsulates the times right now is by Kahil Gilbran and is called Fear:

It is said that before entering

the sea a river trembles with fear.

she looks back at the path

she has travelled from the

peaks of the mountains, the

long winding road, crossing

forests and villages

and in front of her, she sees

an ocean so vast, that to

enter there seems nothing

more than to disappear

forever.

but there is no other way. the

river can not go back.

nobody can go back. to go

back is impossible in existences.

the river needs to take the

risk of entering the ocean,

because only then will fear

disappear, because that’s

where the river will know

it’s not about disappearing

into the ocean, but of

becoming the ocean.

Khalil Gibran

So, here are some photos and videos from the December gathering, I hope you enjoy them.

I'm sure I'll be in touch again before 2022, but in the meantime, once Christmas Day has been and gone, I hope you have a good rest, recharge and reset.

Here is a gallery of the photos, just scroll through.