WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:17.399 Us was to yours the tide pool There was a 2 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:20.640 stretch of coastline where the rocks were smooth and flat, 3 00:00:21.079 --> 00:00:24.079 and the tide pools were deep and clear. A woman 4 00:00:24.199 --> 00:00:27.800 named Lena went there every Sunday morning before the sun 5 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:31.000 was fully up, when the air was still cool and 6 00:00:31.079 --> 00:00:34.479 the beach was empty. She carried a small canvas bag 7 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:37.560 with a thermis of tea and a notebook, and she 8 00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:40.200 would sit on the rocks and watch the tide pools 9 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:44.039 and write down what she saw. Lena was a marine biologist, 10 00:00:44.600 --> 00:00:48.119 or she had been. She had spent twenty years studying 11 00:00:48.159 --> 00:00:50.880 the creatures that lived in the narrow strip between the 12 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:54.880 land and the sea, the tiny crabs and the anemones, 13 00:00:55.399 --> 00:00:57.759 and the snails that clung to the rocks with a 14 00:00:57.799 --> 00:01:01.520 grip that seemed impossible for something so small. She had 15 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:05.000 published papers and given lectures and won a small award 16 00:01:05.159 --> 00:01:07.719 that sat on her shelf in a frame. And then 17 00:01:08.040 --> 00:01:11.599 one spring she had stopped, not because she was tired 18 00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:13.959 of it, but because she had realized that she was 19 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:17.319 spending so much time studying the tide pools that she 20 00:01:17.400 --> 00:01:21.200 had forgotten how to simply sit with them. So she 21 00:01:21.319 --> 00:01:24.280 quit her position at the university, and she moved to 22 00:01:24.359 --> 00:01:27.599 a small cottage near the coast, and she started going 23 00:01:27.640 --> 00:01:30.519 to the tide pools on Sunday mornings. She did not 24 00:01:30.599 --> 00:01:33.879 bring a microscope or a sampling kit. She brought tea 25 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:37.439 and a notebook, and she sat on the rocks and watched. 26 00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:41.719 The tide pools were different every week. The water was 27 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:45.959 clearer after a storm, the colors were brighter in the 28 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:50.920 early morning light. The creatures moved differently depending on the 29 00:01:50.959 --> 00:01:55.480 temperature and the time of day. Lena wrote it all down, 30 00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:59.519 not in the language of science, but in the language 31 00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:03.359 of someone who was paying attention. She wrote about the 32 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:06.040 way a hermit crab would pause at the edge of 33 00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:10.800 a rock, as if deciding whether to go on. She 34 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:13.680 wrote about the way the anemones would close when the 35 00:02:13.719 --> 00:02:17.560 shadow of a gull passed overhead, and then open again 36 00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:22.759 slowly when the shadow was gone. She wrote about the 37 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:25.879 tiny fish that gathered in the corners of the pools, 38 00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:31.159 their silver bodies flickering in the shallows, like thoughts that 39 00:02:31.240 --> 00:02:35.439 you cannot quite hold on to. The note book filled up, 40 00:02:36.280 --> 00:02:40.919 Lena bought another one, and then another. She started to 41 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:46.039 recognize individual creatures. There was a crab with one smaller 42 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:49.680 claw that she called Lefty. There was an enemy that 43 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:52.719 was a deeper purple than all the others, and she 44 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:56.639 called it Velvet. There was a snail that always seemed 45 00:02:56.680 --> 00:02:59.680 to be in the same spot, on the same rock, 46 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:04.280 facing the same direction, and she called at the Philosopher. 47 00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:08.479 She knew, of course, that she was projecting. These creatures 48 00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:11.159 did not have names, or personalities or habits in the 49 00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:14.840 way that she imagined, but it made her feel connected 50 00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:18.159 to them, and that connection was the thing she had 51 00:03:18.199 --> 00:03:22.280 been missing when she was a scientist. The data was important, 52 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:25.439 but the feeling of being part of the same world 53 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:31.800 as these tiny, stubborn, beautiful creatures was more important. One 54 00:03:31.879 --> 00:03:34.879 Sunday in October, Lena arrived at the tide pools to 55 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:38.520 find that something had changed. The rocks were the same, 56 00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:42.759 the water was the same, but there was a new pool, 57 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:46.199 one she had never seen before. It was in a 58 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:50.120 crevice between two large rocks, and it was deeper than 59 00:03:50.120 --> 00:03:52.400 the others, and the water in it was a shade 60 00:03:52.439 --> 00:03:54.439 of blue that she had never seen in a tide 61 00:03:54.479 --> 00:03:57.639 pool before. It was the blue of the sky at 62 00:03:57.639 --> 00:03:59.960 the moment when the stars are just beginning to show, 63 00:04:00.919 --> 00:04:04.080 a deep, quiet blue that seemed to go down forever. 64 00:04:04.520 --> 00:04:07.319 Lena sat down beside the new pool and looked into it. 65 00:04:08.199 --> 00:04:11.240 The water was so clear that she could see the bottom, 66 00:04:11.479 --> 00:04:15.000 which was covered in a fine white sand. There were 67 00:04:15.039 --> 00:04:19.240 no creatures in it, no rocks, no seaweed, just the 68 00:04:19.360 --> 00:04:22.600 sand and the water and the light. She sat there 69 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:25.800 for a long time, watching the surface of the pool. 70 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:30.879 It was perfectly still, without a ripple, and it reflected 71 00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:34.560 the sky above it like a mirror. Lena felt herself 72 00:04:34.600 --> 00:04:37.759 selling into a kind of stillness that matched the pool. 73 00:04:38.279 --> 00:04:43.000 Her breathing slowed, her thoughts quieted. She felt as if 74 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:46.639 she were sinking into the rock, becoming part of the landscape. 75 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:50.920 When she finally looked up, the sun was higher and 76 00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:55.040 the beach was no longer empty. A family was setting 77 00:04:55.120 --> 00:04:58.240 up a picnic further down the shore, and a dog 78 00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:02.079 was running in and out of the way. Lena stood up, 79 00:05:02.680 --> 00:05:06.000 stiff from sitting so long, and she looked back at 80 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:11.800 the new pool. It was still there, still blue, still still. 81 00:05:12.680 --> 00:05:15.800 She came back the next Sunday and the pool was 82 00:05:15.839 --> 00:05:20.199 there again, and the sunday after that. She started to 83 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:22.920 think of it as her pool, though she knew it 84 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:26.240 did not belong to her. It belonged to the tide 85 00:05:26.759 --> 00:05:29.680 and the rocks and the moon that pulled the water 86 00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:33.519 in and out. She was just a visitor, the same 87 00:05:33.560 --> 00:05:37.160 as all the other creatures. In her note book, she 88 00:05:37.279 --> 00:05:40.639 wrote about the pool. She wrote about the color of 89 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:43.879 the water and the stillness of the surface, and the 90 00:05:43.879 --> 00:05:46.920 way it made her feel. She wrote about how she 91 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:50.360 would sit beside it and feel the world slow down, 92 00:05:51.079 --> 00:05:53.240 and how the feeling would stay with her for the 93 00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:56.160 rest of the day, like a quiet hum at the 94 00:05:56.160 --> 00:06:00.639 back of her mind. She started going more often, not 95 00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:05.120 just on Sundays, but on Wednesday mornings before work, and 96 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:08.480 on Friday evenings, when the light was golden and the 97 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:11.959 tide was low. She would sit by the pool and 98 00:06:12.120 --> 00:06:15.360 watch the light change on the water, and she would 99 00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:20.040 feel herself becoming calmer and more present and more alive. 100 00:06:20.439 --> 00:06:25.279 Her friends noticed the change. They said she seemed different, 101 00:06:25.959 --> 00:06:30.800 more at ease, more herself. Lina smiled and said she 102 00:06:30.839 --> 00:06:33.720 had found a good spot by the sea, and she 103 00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:36.920 left it at that. She did not tell them about 104 00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:41.360 the pool. It was not a secret exactly, it was 105 00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:47.079 just hers. Winter came and the storms were fierce, the 106 00:06:47.160 --> 00:06:50.639 waves crashed over the rocks, and the tide poles were 107 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:54.879 churned and muddy. Lina stayed home on the worst days, 108 00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:59.680 drinking tea and reading and listening to the wind. She 109 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:03.600 wereried about the pool. She worried that the storms would 110 00:07:03.639 --> 00:07:06.639 fill it with sand, or break the rocks apart, or 111 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:09.000 change it in some way that she could not fix. 112 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:12.680 But when the storms passed and she went back to 113 00:07:12.759 --> 00:07:16.800 the coast, the pool was there. It was the same 114 00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:21.759 deep blue, the same perfect stillness. The sand at the 115 00:07:21.800 --> 00:07:26.839 bottom was undisturbed, the water was clear. It was as 116 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:30.639 if the pool existed in a different world, one where 117 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:35.079 storms could not reach. Lena sat beside it and felt 118 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:39.199 her whole body relax. She had been holding tension in 119 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:42.920 her shoulders and her jaw and her hands without knowing it, 120 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:47.560 and the pool released it all. She sat there for 121 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:51.800 an hour, and then she walked home, and she slept 122 00:07:51.839 --> 00:07:54.680 that night with a depth and a peace that she 123 00:07:54.720 --> 00:07:59.079 had almost forgotten was possible. Spring brought new life to 124 00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:04.759 the tide pool. The anemones opened wider, the crabs grew bolder, 125 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:09.800 the tiny fish returned in greater numbers. Lina wrote about 126 00:08:09.879 --> 00:08:13.240 all of it in her note books, filling page after 127 00:08:13.399 --> 00:08:18.319 page with her careful, loving observations, but she always saved 128 00:08:18.360 --> 00:08:22.000 the last few pages for the blue pool. She wrote 129 00:08:22.040 --> 00:08:25.040 about the way the light moved across it in the morning. 130 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:28.399 She wrote about the way the surface caught the colors 131 00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:32.120 of the sky, turning pink and gold and then deep 132 00:08:32.200 --> 00:08:35.720 blue as the evening came. She wrote about the way 133 00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:39.279 it made her feel, which was the same every time, 134 00:08:39.799 --> 00:08:43.519 but also different because she was different every time she 135 00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:48.879 sat beside it. Years passed, Lena grew older, her hair 136 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:52.519 turned gray, and her hands grew stiff in the cold, 137 00:08:53.080 --> 00:08:56.559 but she never stopped going to the tide pools. The 138 00:08:56.639 --> 00:09:00.159 Sunday morning ritual was the anchor of her week, the 139 00:09:00.200 --> 00:09:03.799 thing that held everything else in place. She would wake 140 00:09:03.919 --> 00:09:08.000 before dawn, pack her bag, walk to the coast, and 141 00:09:08.120 --> 00:09:10.679 sit on the rocks with her tea and her note book. 142 00:09:11.159 --> 00:09:15.399 The blue pool was always there. It never changed, It 143 00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:19.320 never dried up, it never filled with sand or seaweed. 144 00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:22.519 It was the one constant in a world that was 145 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:26.039 always shifting, and Lina was grateful for it in a 146 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:30.399 way that she could not dispress in words. One Sunday morning, 147 00:09:30.840 --> 00:09:34.320 as she was sitting beside the pool, a young woman appeared. 148 00:09:34.919 --> 00:09:37.519 She was carrying a note book and a pen, and 149 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:39.840 she looked at the pool the way Lena had looked 150 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:44.159 at it the first time, with wonder and recognition. Is 151 00:09:44.200 --> 00:09:49.000 this your spot, the young woman asked. It is not mine, 152 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:52.240 Lena said, but I have been coming here for a 153 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:57.000 long time. The young woman sat down beside her and 154 00:09:57.080 --> 00:10:01.080 they watched the pool together, tho the water was still, 155 00:10:02.200 --> 00:10:07.720 the light was soft, the world was quiet. It is beautiful, 156 00:10:08.360 --> 00:10:13.240 the young woman said. Lena nodded, it is, she said. 157 00:10:14.039 --> 00:10:18.120 It is the most beautiful thing I know. They sat 158 00:10:18.159 --> 00:10:21.679 together for a while, and then the young woman left, 159 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:25.399 and Lina was alone again with the pool and the 160 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:29.200 rocks and the sea. She opened her notebook and wrote 161 00:10:29.240 --> 00:10:32.679 about the encounter, and about the way it felt to 162 00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:36.240 share the pool with someone else, and about the way 163 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:40.799 the light was moving across the water, slow and golden 164 00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:45.720 and endless. The tide pools are still there along the coast, 165 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:49.600 where the rocks are smooth and flat. If you ever 166 00:10:49.639 --> 00:10:53.440 find yourself needing a place to be still, a place 167 00:10:53.559 --> 00:10:56.559 where the world slows down and the noise fades away, 168 00:10:57.480 --> 00:11:02.360 find a tide pool, sit beside it, watch the water. 169 00:11:03.639 --> 00:11:07.279 Listen to the quiet, and if you are very patient 170 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:11.399 and very still, you might find a pool that is 171 00:11:11.480 --> 00:11:15.279 deeper and bluer than all the others, a pool that 172 00:11:15.399 --> 00:11:19.559 reflects the sky like a mirror, A pool that holds 173 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:23.200 the stillness of the whole world in its small, clear depths. 174 00:11:24.200 --> 00:11:28.919 Sit with it, Breathe, and let the quiet settle over 175 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:34.120 you like the tide, slow and gentle, and sure the 176 00:11:34.159 --> 00:11:37.279 pool will be there when you come back. It will 177 00:11:37.320 --> 00:11:38.320 always be there.