> "I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied"

This couplet by [John Masefield](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54932/sea-fever-56d235e0d871e) has been resounding in my head since I first heard it at school when I was 14 years old. Oh, I ignored the wider content of the poem, which was about sailing, and just pulled out the lines I loved, and that spoke to me as I stared at the montage of surfing pictures on my school folder and dreamed of the ocean and being free, away from the cloistered, stuffy classrooms and the 'shoulds' toward the bliss of salt water and the promise of travel to faraway beaches where I'd be equally lost, and somehow more *me* - knotted hair, barefeet, and salty skin, gyspy like. 

> I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

![DSC06000.JPG](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/riverflows/8aPBwFJY-DSC06000.JPG)

In the way only those who have fallen in love with the wild sea can know, it becomes a siren's song. Perhaps we're more in tune to the sirens that call us to her shoreline, onto it's velvetine surface and cool depths, where silver fingerlings dart and lattices of sunlight refract, rays fly gracefully and birds dip and carouse. When I moved to England, the furthest inland I've ever ever lived away from the coast, my new man argued the coast wasn't *far* away - only an hour or two's drive. It took some coercing - begging! - to make him understand that was *too* far. I grew up with the roar of the sea coming through my window at night. I wasn't placated. Still, the cold waters of Dorset, whilst a balm, didn't do it for me as much as my southern oceans. 

On my back I have a tattooed merfairy. Yes, that's the portmanteu that describes her best - half mermaid, half fairy. Drawn my most artistic best friend and needled on my skin by an old lover, she was - is - who I saw myself. With wings, she couldn't be tethered to earth completely, and with scaled legs, she was also a creature of the sea. Her feet, rather than a tail, enabled her to walk to the shore, and choose which way to go - blue sky above, blue water below. Freedom. A feeling of moving towards my true is-ness, my true nature, unshackled by the expectations and shackles of a society that bound me - binds me - in all kinds of ways. I become *one* with world in a kind of material short cut to the sensation of being in the eternal fields of consciousness and connection to the entire universe. I feel *that* more on the water, in the water, than anywhere else, mostly. 

![DSC05985.JPG](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/riverflows/LvFKmaln-DSC05985.JPG)

How can this be a post about *freedom*, you might ask, if I'm just talking about how the ocean has *hooked* me? A dear friend told me that I should feel such peace and calm whereever I am, and that a meditative practice can bring such peace within without following these wants and desires. True - we make heaven or hell according to what we think about things. The extraordinary freedom and bliss I feel in the sea could be someone's worse nightmare. And perhaps even someone out there loves doing dishes *for the sake of doing dishes*, as Thic Nat Hanh famously tells us - we should find joy in the moment, in the nowness, whereever that may be. And I'm trying - I really am.

But do I need to give up the ocean in order to do that? In all my years I've never had to make a choice of to sea or not to sea. It is always there, always calling me with it's wild and clear call, and I often answer. It doesn't seem a bad thing, to be addicted to the natural world in this way. 

Perhaps, then, it comes to this: 

> “That's all the freedom we can hope for - the freedom to choose our prison.” 
― L.M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle

If I can choose the ocean, it's a prison I'm happy to be in. It makes me happier and more able to cope with life. It makes me healthier. In it I can have respite from the noise of the world - the traffic, the people, all the man made things that crowd me in and overwhelm me. It helps me *return* to a meditative practice more quickly - an hour's surf and an hour's yoga or meditation and I'm more alive and *vital* than ever - more willing to give of myself to others, more willing to engage in this experience of life, more willing to follow my dhamma where I see it going, more willing to love. It's not an escape, or a prison - it's a baptismal renewal into life again and again that allows me to truly get closer to who I *really* am. 

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**This post is a response to @freedomtribe's question about freedom posted by @artemislives. All Steemians are welcome to enter, and there's 50 Steem of prizes on offer! I'll be judging along with @richardcrill and @artemislives, so this excludes me from the contest, but I'd LOVE to see you get involved. I'm going to personally upvote and comment on everyone - after I dip myself in the sea!**

The question is: 

#### "What's the one thing you have lost - or would be afraid to lose - which would limit (or has already limited) your personal Freedom?"

*Make sure you copy and paste the link to your entry [here](https://steempeak.com/freedomtribe/@freedomtribe/freedom-challenge-closing-date-extended-to-sunday-5th-may-50sp-in-prizes) - and you're welcome to drop it in the comments below too, as I'll come along directly and upvote and comment! Yay!*

### The proceeds of this post are going to @littledisciples. @lopzdaniel's work with this charity must be supported - sometimes, we forget how much freedom we have when others are limited by circumstance. Please check out [this post](https://steempeak.com/charity/@lopzdaniel/4espnj-urgent-malnutrition-in-the-celestial-villa-sector-or-help-the-children-of-venezuela-urgente-desnutricion-en-el-sector-de-villa) and do what you can!

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