I was watching an ocean documentary with my toddler the other day, and when they cut to some b-roll of the ocean washing onto a beach, I suddenly felt an ache.
Like, a deep dull ache inside of my body.
I have always been a child of the sea. Both of my parent’s grew up on islands, I grew up near the beach, and even now, I live on an island, surrounded by salty water.
I love the ocean for its beauty, its depth, its mystery. I also love it for its inconsistency. Like all things in nature, we try to understand it, but there is so much we do not and cannot know. The ocean is impossible to control, impossible to perfectly predict its movements.
This month’s theme is Tide, and I chose this theme because a tide is inconsistent. It meets the shore at different times every day. It rushes close to kiss the sand and then retreats far away.
I think sometimes we can get too hung up on being consistent creatures—exercising, eating well, working, publishing here on Substack—that we demonize or resent our inconsistency.
As if it’s something that holds us back, when in reality, it’s our truest compass.
The tide is a reminder that we, too, are ever-changing, that clinging to a static way of being goes against our very nature.
We were made to move, bend, break, spill, shape shift, and leave when it’s time to leave.
Let this month’s issue be your permission to change, to be the thing you don’t think you can be, to embody your expansiveness beyond what you thought was possible.
Let the tide be your guide.
And thus, The Interstitial: The Tide Issue is yours.
Inside, you’ll find poetry, my usual musings, and of course, some whimsy.
Download it below to access it. Share it, post about it (pls credit me if you do!), print it, write all over it. Please, make it yours!
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