I've always been fascinated by the ocean. In particular, ocean life. It always amazes me that there is a whole universe, that is so completely removed from our daily existence, and yet covers more of the world than we do. Behemoth whales, tiny plankton, crazy glow-in-the-dark fish. All of that and so much more, right in front of our eyes, and yet we can't see it unless we try.
When I was young and living on the East Coast, near the Atlantic Ocean, I wanted to be a marine biologist. I spent my summers at a camp where we would go on a sailboat every day into the ocean and drop a net into the water. Our counselors taught us about all the marine life we caught. Awesome, right?
But then we moved to the Midwest, where the closest you'll come to the ocean is a sewage-filled lake with fake beaches. Yuck. Then I went to college in Arizona, a place where the closest thing resembling an ocean is the sand. My dream ended before it had begun.
Such is the tragic life of Elad Nehorai.
But wait! The story is not over. Do not fear, oh, loyal readers!
Because it was in that very ocean of sand, Arizona, that I discovered that my desire to connect to this separate and distinct world was not as limited as I once thought. It was there that I found out that there is more than one type of ocean.
As I discovered, they call this other ocean "Spirituality." Ever heard of it? It is a whole other world, just like the ocean. One right in front of us, and yet completely hidden. It is infinitely deep, and like all oceans, we have hardly come close to exploring it fully.
It should come as no surprise that this ocean shares a number of other similarities with the oceans that are a little easier to see. For example, this ocean also teems with life. Angels, demons, souls. All of these are constantly flowing within the ocean of spirituality, some deeper, some in the shallows, where we can almost see them.
As time has gone on, we have begun to forget about the oceans, both physical and spiritual. Now that we don't have to actually get on a boat and throw a net in the ocean to eat some fish, we are less aware of the oceans. Now that we buy our fish in packages, we tend to forget about all the crazy life just next door and underneath us.
And because of all that, it has become all too easy to pollute the ocean and kill the life underwater without being aware of it, or overuse the life within it to the point where whole species disappear.
So too, because we have become less aware of the ocean of Spirituality, it is easy for us to pretend it does not exist. Easier for us to use it up endlessly. Easier for us to destroy it at our convenience.
But there has been a change! Recently, people have begun to notice the ocean again, thanks to campaigns for our attention and the help of awesome nature shows. They know that life in the ocean is not being treated with complete care and love. And they are determined to do something about it. And because of that, they're thinking deeper and further. They want to fix that world, the one they might not see with their eyes but can now visualize in their minds.
We have officially begun training ourselves to care about what we cannot see. To join in holy union with that which we can only imagine and feel on a momentary basis.
And now, thanks to this great effort, people are beginning to see the eighth ocean. The ocean that truly needs to be repaired. Instead of just saving whales, we're seeing that we also need to create angels. Instead of only cleaning oil spills, we're also wiping the impurity off our minds.
We must swim through the oceans of physicality to reach the shores of spirituality. But to do that we need to keep cleaning.
Maybe one day I'll return to Connecticut and go sailing. But I'll be honest; right now I'm pretty busy trying to clean. Anyone want to join me?
