In 2012, Dr. Wallace J. Nichols gave a powerful TED talk about embracing and exploring one’s “blue mind“, focusing on the remarkable comfort and healing properties of the act of being surrounded by blue water. While a person can feel rather small in comparison, the enormity of a body of water allows a person to feel as an integral part of a something far greater than oneself. In giving this talk, Nichols read aloud from the e e cummings poem “maggie and milly and molly and may“, which aptly concluded with “For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it’s always ourselves we find in the sea”.
Using our oceans as the prime example of how insignificant humans can feel while also being unmistakingly connected to the spirit of nature, Nichols urges us to embrace our natural surroundings in order to live robust and full lives.
