Salinity

This year has unfolded with a specific kind of delightful unexpectedness. I’m leaning in to surrender to its beauty: the art of saying ‘yes.’ Life in limbo has taught me even more about cultivating a practice of presence, of showing up to unanticipated moments when they arise. Which is why we, of course, said ‘yes’ when we were invited to a friend’s wedding and subsequent four-day adventure exploring Israel just a few weeks before.

I hadn’t envisioned this moment for myself in 2022. I’m at the lowest point on earth: the Dead Sea. I inch my way cautiously into the water. Buoyancy. Floating. Mineral-rich soaking. Salt seeping into my skin. A droplet burning my eye. Warmth and salinity in tandem. 

My skin is taut after the dead sea mud I slathered on is dry. I return to the water, dip low and scrub it off to reveal a softness that is light, airy. 

The following day, I experience the Dead Sea from another vantage point: high above. We climbed Masada, an ancient fortress atop a rocky mesa, at dawn. Overlooking the salt lake with the Jordanian mountains looming in the distance, I found myself veering from our group to find stillness. The sun creeps up from behind the mountainous outline in the east and lights up the crevices of a place steeped in a traumatic history of defense and death. 

I look back and find my through line: everything has led me to here, to this place, at this very time. The only constant is change and the only thing you can control is your mindset. I settle into this feeling of soaking it in: the salt of the earth from below and up high.