Panama

  For all of us that leave the clutter and clatter behind and venture into the natural world,  be it forest or mountains or oceans, the more time we spend, the closer we come to the timeless Divine. For those of us that choose to spend Less time in the material world, and More time in the natural world, in my case, the water world, the chances or likelihood of sacred moments are directly related to how much time we spend there. As we step away from our usual distractions and into Nature, we allow ourselves to change and grow. Greater familiarity means greater appreciation, closeness and understanding. Without any conscious effort, we change form and feelings as we allow ourselves to be swept up into the Divine stream of Life.  We sense and feel nature’s message that we are part of something larger. I am transformed, by my extended solo time in the wild, from an outsider, into that tiny, timeless being that appreciates he is a minutia, yet vital part of something grand, and is being carried along in the divine stream.  We are blessed with joy knowing that we can let go and allow our life to unfold as it should.

    These feelings ebb and flow and are so evanescent that sometime we doubt they exist. But from time to time we get to experience, in glorious wonderment, a sacred moment. I share my feelings of a moment on our recent spearfishing trip, and maybe you too have been there before, in your own way.

    For me, the most memorable and powerful sacred moments often occur in that instant, that seems to last forever, when there is a confluence of all the universe’s dynamic and mystical forces coming together, to create that rare set of circumstances necessary for the perfect shot. The water is warm, blue, and bottomless, the moon and tide are right,  the current is right, I am here precisely at this moment because of hundreds of earlier decisions including one just five minutes ago that I should move to this spot. Years of decisions have led me to be right here, right now.  At ten feet below the surface, I hold my breath, but am relaxed, warm, and peaceful as I slowly sink, watching the flasher, twelve feet in front of me. All tension and strain melt into the water around me. I am perfectly still, and have stepped away from the noise and into the silence. Comfortable, no movement, no breath, no noise, total focus—I am into the flow. A large, silver, magnificent wahoo glides easily out of the blue toward the flasher and I watch his eyes flick back and forth watching me. He has been on his way to this destiny perhaps for years and has traveled hundreds or thousands of miles and has avoided nets, sharp hooks and hungry sharks. He is an apex predator, from which few fish escape, and he is as beautiful and sleek and fast as few other creatures in the world. I am in awe and appreciation of this hallowed, timeless, moment, this appointed meeting.  He glides close to the flasher and then seems to hesitate for an instant, just a few feet away. That sacred moment is NOW.  RIGHT NOW!  Time stops, and nothing else exists.  All the forces of the universe have come together in perfect order at this moment, and I am in awe, spellbound, by this precise, pure, point in time. My brain photographs this instant, click, knowing this will never exist again.

    I start to swing my gun. I give thanks for this blessing, and rest in this spearfisher’s sacred moment, until a noise brings me back into the world.—-

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    My shot was almost perfect, and I thought the fish was stoned, and then he roared off into the blue. I grabbed the bungee with one hand, held my mask on with the other hand and streamlined myself as I accelerated into the deep.  I felt the water violently flowing past my body as he towed me down and out. I relaxed, held my breath, closed my eyes and rocketed through the water enjoying for several seconds the rush, of that rare drug, experienced only by other lucky spearos.  This sacred, magical time lasts until one of us runs out of gas. In this instance the fish stops, and as I look up and float toward the surface, I feel totally exhilarated and grateful for one more of Neptune’s divine and unforgettable gifts. 

      Greg, Michelle and I each got to enjoy variations of this ride as we all scored on wahoo.  All of us sharing one gun seems to work great, as we get to enjoy watching each other dive, and seeing the larger picture from above. Greg, the newest spearo, was out diving and out shooting us both, so we may have to leave him home next time. One expensive lesson he did learn from me on this trip was how NOT to hook up the float to the bungee line. I had a great shot on another big wahoo and he took off and I grabbed the float, ready for a great ride.——-POP——The long line clip and the strap on the buoy separated, and I watched as my spear, my slip tip and the fish disappeared into the blue, trailing my only bungee line, never to be seen again. If not careful, the nylon strap on the Rob Allen buoy will not seat completely in the long line clip and will pull out with sudden force. I wish it had not happened on my watch but I slipped up and failed to check the connection, so I was on the hook. But I know it must have been Michelle’s or Greg’s or the boat drivers fault, as I would Never do that, with all my experience.

    Taking turns and sharing a gun we often see fish that the diver down does not see. Greg was at about 20 feet swimming horizontally toward the flasher and I saw a big fish quickly come out of the deep and head in a bee line for Greg, coming directly at him from behind. The thick brown body told me it was a big bull shark and on a mission. When Greg looked up, ready to surface, he saw me excitedly pointing behind him. He turned, expecting to see a big wahoo, and I could see him flinch, and struggle to spin his gun around, as he saw the big shark coming so close. Fortunately, Greg did not look much like a wounded wahoo, and the shark veered off and went back down into the darkness. We encountered another small shark under a floating log and he was aggressive, on speed and decided to chase us away from his private log. He was moving so fast and was so agitated, that it was hard to watch him, and I finally had to poke him with the spear to chase him away.  We see very few sharks down here and so it is always fun as long as they don’t try and put a bite on you.

      Where the roach coach, our mother boat, anchors up at night, we encountered another rare and unexpected danger, seldom threatening divers. On the nearby beach, where there are no people, a small stream, surrounded by towering coconut palms, flows into the ocean. After a day of diving the panga drops us at the beach with our soap and towels and we pour buckets of fresh water over each other as we remove our suits and wash off the salt water. What could paralyze us or kill us in this peaceful setting? CRACK
A ten pound coconut falls out of the tree from 60 feet and lands with a loud smack, barely missing Greg. Another falls a few minutes later and we start to think—What If?  So we shower, watching the clusters of bombs above us, hoping more will fall so we can enjoy the healthy, delicious, re-hydrating juice but nobody wants to get killed by any kind of nut, a coked up nut, or even a coconut.

      After we had shot wahoo, Greg then shot a powerful rooster fish that pulled him up on the rocks in two feet of water, and Michelle scored on a beautiful golden trevally.  We decided to go out and look for flotsam and see if we could find any dorado underneath. Because of the recent rains we found two great trees floating, one that Greg and I could sit on and another even larger that I could stand on easily. However, in our experience, if they are too close to shore, within a mile or two, or too new, having recently come downriver, they will hold nothing underneath.  Both of these trees were too new, and too close, but within a week or two, both of them will be awesome FADS and great places to hunt, though dangerous for boats.

Miles out, we found another obstacle to navigation, a big metal barrel. With some drive by gunnery practice at the waterline level we were able to remove the obstacle and make a new condo for some bottom dwellers. We ended the trip with no success finding the big barnacle covered logs or the dorado that are usually found beneath.

    As we headed home we looked back in gratitude, thankful for such a rare and enjoyable trip.  We all know how unusual it is, when all the universal energies cooperate and come together to provide such ideal conditions. We smiled as we mentally recapped all of our wonderful new experiences and sacred moments. Some of you might doubt, or have yet to experience, your own sacrosanct moment of perfection, that perfect shot. But if you are present, often enough, in nature, waiting in grateful anticipation of your gift, your path in the Divine flow will eventually intersect the path of that magnificent gift Neptune has waiting for you. It will happen. If you are ready for your spearfishing divine moment, we even have marked the secret, sacred spot. The next divine diving moment might happen right there——right over there—- at the end of the rainbow that Michelle is watching in the picture. It is waiting for all of us right there. Freeze! 

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Dix and Michelle Roper     .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

December 17, 2011