WATERmeditation June 2024
Follow-up to WATERmeditation with Pamella Miller
“Nurtured by the Sea”
Monday, June 3, 2024 at 7:30pm EDT
Warm thanks to Pamella Miller for leading an inspiring meditation entitled “Nurtured by the Sea” The video can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IADWLRTfD64&ab_channel=WATERwomensalliance.
It was a lovely opportunity to reflect on the power of water to heal and comfort.
Mary E. Hunt’s Introduction to Pamella:
In November 2022, Pamella offered a mediation on “Rest to Achieve Potential” which was well received. We all took something away about the need to chill out, the paradox that by doing less we do more.
Pamella just finished two productive years at WATER as a part of her Masters of Divinity studies at Wesley Theological Seminary. She did a practicum, what is called the Practice in Ministry and Mission, at WATER. Clarafrancie Crowner, a former WATER PM+M person, was Pamella’s clergy mentor in the program so there is a nice genealogy forming of women ministers training their colleagues. I suspect that one day Pamella will be back at WATER as a clergy mentor with another student.
Pamella is not a beginner in ministry. Rather, she is an experienced hospital chaplain. She comes originally from Jamaica, living now in the DC area. We are delighted to have her share tonight on “Nurtured by the Sea” as she continues her immersion in water, all puns intended. I hope that Pamella’s time at WATER has enhanced her already fruitful ministry as much as she has enhanced ours.
Pamella Miller’s remarks “Nurtured by the Sea”
I want to start with something brief about the sea and the ocean and then share some of my memories of being nurtured by the sea, growing up on an island, surrounded by the water. I will then read some inspirational quotes from the book “Seascapes. Inspiration and Meaning Drawn from the Serenity of the Sea” by Dean Walley (Hallmark Crown Editions, 1974).
When I hear or use the word “nurtured” I think of caring and caring for something. Nurtured by the sea suggests how the sea cares for us. As the sea or the ocean takes care of us, we ought to provide nurturing for the sea as well. The planet and the earth need the oceans. The ocean is a part of planet Earth, a major part of it.
On the website, Earth Law Center, it is stated: “We are the ocean, and the ocean is us.” This conveys the importance of establishing a relationship between humanity and the ocean. These are some of the reasons:
- It sustains life on the planet
- Humans depend on healthy oceans
- The ocean is a living entity and not a resource
(Earth Law Center | Champions for the Rights of Nature)
For my experience, I start with the official UN Law of the Sea. I remember in 1982 when I was in school in Jamaica the International Seabed Authority building opened in Kingston. Schools across the island represented the 167 member states and the EU who were signatories to the Law of the Sea. Students wore costumes representing the countries and debated the issue of the importance of the sea. I was not a debater, but watching the debates on how to protect the seas in the world was fun.
Growing up in Jamaica the sea has been very nurturing to me. To start, my birth sign is the water sign Pisces and I love the waters. One way the sea nurtures me is by bonding with my family.
- My mother shared her experience of having cataract surgery at sea – on the floating hospital – the ship Hope. I wanted to be on the sea with her via a cruise because she loved her experience on the sea.
- We celebrate Boxing Day in Jamaica – the day after Christmas. Along with my sister and other family members, we spend the day on the beach working off some of the food we had on Christmas, but shouldn’t have had.
- In my youth I would take my cousins from Kingston to the beach, and we would go on boat rides that took us out so far at sea that we could not see land. We enjoyed the ride like a roller coaster if the sea was choppy. We had no life jackets and no idea how dangerous it was. The sea nurtured us and kept us safe.
- My high school was in a bay, Morant Bay, on a hill that allows us to look down into the bay. Sometimes while sitting in class I would look through the window and be mesmerized, forgetting that I was in class.
- We had a teacher from Ohio who sometimes would walk out of the classroom to stand on the balcony to look at the sea, forgetting she was teaching a class.
- I worked in Downtown Kingston, near the Seabed Authority, and I would take my lunch break to ride the ferry to Port Royal and back. This was relaxing and helped me refocus, especially during a hectic workday.
I like to see the sea and the ocean as a great swimming pool and the waves like jacuzzi jets leaving my body massaging and relaxed. This is therapeutic.
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Following (in the video) are some quotes from the book Seascapes Inspiration and Meaning Drawn From the Serenity of the Sea.
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After a period of shared silence during which time this graphic was on the screen, there were a number of comments.
- A colleague from Australia who lives near the sea observed that we need to nurture the sea as it nurtures us. The toxic waste that goes into it and the rising sea levels due to climate change are of serious concern.
Pamella repeated that “we are the ocean and the ocean is us.”
- A German colleague described her earliest experience of the sea when she snorkeled as a young child.
- A colleague from the Midwest described her time at a beach in California, calling the sea mesmerizing. She felt as if the ocean breathed.
- Still another person talked about camping at the ocean, in her case at Assateague which is in Maryland and Virginia, famous for the wild horses. She also mentioned a river in New Zealand that got status as a legal entity.
- A Canadian colleague described her experience of living for a number of years in Jamaica, learning the grace and vulnerability of island life. She then lived in Tanzania where her children sailed off but always got back safely somehow.
- Sand dollars when cracked open reveal dove-like figures inside, as reported by another colleague. She also commented on the rhythms of the ocean and the feeling of sinking into the sand.
- One person was sufficiently moved to search out travel options to her favorite beach.
All in all, the meditation was a lovely pause, as refreshing as going to the beach without the traffic jams! Thanks, Pamella Miller.
