Things You Can Learn About Love at the Bottom of the Ocean
There are many things I have come to believe about love throughout my experiences with dating. Things I have learned from the hurt that can accompany love and things I have learned from the exquisite deliciousness of falling in love. Despite having gone through heartache, I have come to one shining and undeniable truth within myself...I believe in love and the power it has to connect us.
Several years ago, I was in the height of a new relationship and very much in love. The connection I felt for my then boyfriend was unlike any I had ever felt before. We started to finish each other's sentences, he would call me just as I reached for the phone to call him, and we could guess what the other was thinking more often than not. It seemed as if, amidst the static, we had each been searching all our lives through radio stations in our heads and had finally tuned into each other's. Something I refer to as "being on the same brain wave."
At one point in our relationship, we took a vacation together and decided to spend a day snorkeling while we were there. We pulled up to the desolate beach in our little rental car and headed toward the sand...no cell reception and in the middle of nowhere. He went in the water first with his goggles, snorkel, and flippers, resembling a giant sea creature, while I lazily napped on the sand. I laughed to myself as I watched him off in the distance, popping his head in and out of the water and exploring the depths of the ocean floor.
Eventually, I grew tired of napping (which is so unlike me) and threw on the snorkel gear I had been so adamant about packing in my tiny suitcase. I put my flippers on and awkwardly waddled my way into the ocean, the sound of my giggles muffled by the mouthpiece attached to my snorkel. He was pretty far away in the distance now so I figured I'd explore on my own for awhile.
I dunked my head under the surface of the water hoping to see some little "Nemo fish." My eyes slowly spanned the surface of the ocean floor and I watched the way the sand twisted gently amidst the rocking of the waves. Then suddenly a flare of something shiny off in the distance caught my eye.
"What is that?" I thought. "Maybe it's buried treasure!"
I steadily made my way over to the object only to discover that it was just a set of keys. I thought how terrible it must have been for the person who lost them and how lucky they'd feel when I found them to return their recovered keys.
"HEY!" I yelled to him across the water. "Someone lost their keys! Can you believe that?!"
And then I saw the look of panic on his face as he frantically patted down his swim short pockets.
"Oh my God!" he said. "Those are OUR keys!"
We drove away that day unscathed and laughed the entire way back to our hotel about how screwed we would have been without the car keys.
I often think back to that story and wonder if it was just a coincidence that I found our tiny set of keys at the bottom of the ocean or if something had led me to them. Either way, the experience taught me a lot about love.
I believe love is a rarity to find and the connection we share with those we love is limitless. I believe this world is a really big place and the search for our "other" may take a bit longer than I'd hoped. I believe the miracle of finding love can be a lot like finding your keys at the bottom of the ocean.