Mind the Gap

Years-ago I worked at a field site called Radio Island Jetty; a narrow strip of rock just inside Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina.  The tidal flux though the inlet produced extreme currents on the jetty; water rushing in at high tide, then reversing and flooding back out as the tide receded.  Trying to work in these conditions (yes, we tried; we were in our 20s) was impossible and quickly degraded into an exercise of clambering onto the rocks to avoid being swept away.  But just at the peak of the tidal extremes there was stillness; a pause at the peak of the high tide and another at the bottom of the low tide.  During these times of slack water, the current would drop to zero and the visibility would improve; there was stillness, there was clarity, and in these brief pauses, lasting about an hour, science was done.  

I’ve found myself thinking about these places recently.  These places of stillness between the ripping currents.

The pause at the bottom of the exhale, the emptiness just before the tide turns into the next inhalation.

The pause after hearing words; a choice on how to respond, whether to respond at all, or just walk away.  There is freedom to choose the response, but that freedom lives in the still water.

The space between thoughts; the slack in mental activity where clarity and beauty reside.

Like they say in the London Underground:  “Mind the Gap” 

Seems to me the gap is where the good stuff is.