the Story in the Sea

There are stories out there that find us and touch us deeply, like an ocean wave that crests above us, slams down, engulfs our body, and recedes leaving an unsettling chill that remains long after the sea has dried off from our shivering skin.

These stories are fantastic, a trip around the limits of imagination. They take our hand and lead us out to the distant fringes of our lives, then invites us to stare into the darkness far and beyond.

I am left restless every time I find stories like this. I wonder, how a story so strange to me, so far removed from my dull life, could affect me so deeply.  How could mere words provoke me, how can it lure me out of worrying about schedules and deadlines and laundry and duty, and leave me spellbound, submerged in wonderment.

I can't help but wonder what it means. If it was meant to mean something. If it meant anything at all. Did I waste my time listening to the story, and now waste some more rationalizing it. Can a story not be purposeful and stay relevant?

And yet I feel the remnant chill of the sea, I feel the fibers of my being drenched and saturated by unfamiliar images, thoughts, and words. I am compelled to think about it, think about how something so far outside of my life, could make me feel so alive.

Photo credit: Awais Aftab