Haibun: Ocean Rhymes

We are the eternal return. Like the waves of the ocean, we keep returning to the same things over and over: wave in, wave out. We have our habits and routines, and that's what we do most of the time. And yet for all that we return, there is so much subtle change in our lives—we grow older, we gain wisdom, and sometimes lose something that was once very important to us. Our lives unfold over several decades to the rhythms of the wave in, wave out. Yet even over a day we can see high tide and low tide, but in the moment it is wave in, wave out. When I think back on my life in moments like these, it strikes me how every year seems to expand out like a rising ocean level.

pulled out to return

ocean waves each earn a turn

in summer’s full burn