Sanctuary as a State of Mind...Quotes About the Inspiration That is the Sea...

April 12, 2010

Sanctuary as a State of Mind

I love the word sanctuary, how it rolls off the tongue, emitting waves of serenity, even as I contemplate its meaning.

A sanctuary is a safe place where I seek my refuge, either figuratively or metaphorically. It serves as a shelter from danger, as a sacred place where fear need not take hold. In fact, the word “sacred” is just one letter reversal, one degree, away from the spelling of the word “scared” and I find that interesting, in that often fear precedes the seeking of a sanctuary, a refuge, or a haven. Facing fear, that False Evidence Appearing Real F.E.A.R., leads to growth and the gaining of a sense of self.

My sanctuary is the ocean and I’m not alone I know. There are a great number of inspirational quotes pertaining to the solace provided by the sea and all of the related elements; ocean, beach, water, sailing, sand.

Along with this picture I took in Santa Cruz not all that long ago, I’m including several quotes that I thought were moving. Some were spoken by famous folks, others maybe not-so-famous, but all of these serve to inspire me and I hope the same is true for you.

QUOTES

Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me. - Albert Schweitzer

Listen to what you know instead of what you fear. - Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has courage to lose sight of the shore. - Andre Gide

It is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea---whether it is to sail or to watch it---we are going back from whence we came. - John F. Kennedy

When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused.- Rainer Maria Rilke

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)it's always ourselves we find in the sea. - e.e. cummings

My soul is full of longing

For the secret of the sea,

And the heart of the great ocean

Sends a thrilling pulse through me.- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. - Mahatma Gandhi

Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind.- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

My life is like a stroll upon the beach,

As near the ocean's edge as I can go.- Henry David Thoreau, The Fisher's Boy

To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me. - Isaac Newton

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever. - Jacques Cousteau

The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace. - Kate Chopin

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in an ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. - Mother Teresa

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain