Suspended over The Abyss

Thirty-four hours ago I was enacting a dream. The repetitive dream that visits me with such frequency is one of floating underwater, suspended in the deep blue, which stretches to infinity on every side.

On Saturday morning, February 14th, Valentines Day, I spent time with my love. The object of my desire - the focus of my passion, my imagination, and my adrenaline fuelled dreams. Diving. To be specific, diving the Great Wall off the shores of Little Cayman, where a shallow reef ends abruptly, dropping vertically into a deep ocean trench of more than 6000 feet. Visibility is seemingly infinite in this protected marine environment. At 80ft down, I could still see the sunlight sparkling on the surface far above.

The underwater world wrapped me in it's cool embrace as I floated out over the abyss. I had swam out into the open ocean about 50 yards, leaving the security of the reef wall in order to view the entire scene from further back. It was majestic. The other divers were tiny against the backdrop of coral heads, sea fans, and shadowy crevices. Below, there was nothing but the yawning deep. Behind, the open ocean - wild, deep waters stretching 150 miles to Cuba.

My imagination was running wild. The last time I dived a wall of this magnitude and water clarity, was the drop off in Sipadan, Malaysia - the same unforgettable occasion that a school of several hundred hammerheads passed overhead. Today, there were no hammerheads. Just the abyss and I. I floated, frozen in time. Meditative. This is my life, I thought. I smiled behind my regulator. Yes, this is my life, and what a life it is!