“The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears or the sea.” – Isak Dinesen
I saw this quote recently and I giggled to myself. I was remembering the many times that I went to my university’s health clinic back when I was in college. It seemed that no matter what symptoms or malaise that I was complaining about at the time, I was always given the same cure: a little brown bag filled with salt. Thinking back, I hope my parents’ co-pays weren’t over-the-top expensive, when a container of Morton Salt would have sufficed as the remedy.
The statement has a lot of truth to it, though. I once read that tears are God’s gift to us as release valves. We hold back our tears like a dam until the dam overflows. I think sometimes that we’re afraid that we’ll never stop crying, if we do start, but that is never the case. We have a good cry, the dam level is brought way down, and we can breathe again.
Some people really understand the emotional, physical, and mental release of exercise and sweat. The rest of my family are “those people.” I’m a work in progress, in this regard. However, I do find, particularly when I’m really angry, that there is no better release of all of that pent-up energy that an intense walk/run on a trail that goes on and on until the emotional equilibrium returns, and the trail then leads back to Home.
I’m fortunate enough to live near to the Gulf of Mexico. There is no lighter, better feeling than buoyantly floating on the top of the water, feeling almost as light as air, with the sun kissing its rays on my face bringing me back to the present moment, like nothing else can do. I think that there’s hardly a better way to find peace than sitting on the shore and watching the waves come in and go out, with their steady rhythm and smelling the salt air in the cool breeze.
Maybe life isn’t so complicated after all. Maybe it all does come down to a little brown bag of salt. Maybe that is a good visual for me to have, when I forget to release the tears, let go, sweat it out and then, just float . . . . .