This is the Sea

This song was playing on my internal turntable last night: This is the Sea by The Waterboys.

When it first came out, and mega frequently during those precious hearing years, I'd queue it up on my Walkman. The tune and the rest of that gorgeous album played over and over again.  Auto rewind. Auto play.

I become mesmerized by a wave, the arc and curl, the ever changing light as it reflects and refracts through the curl, the build to peak and the release as it crashes, dissolves, dissipates. The wave becomes foam surging up the beach to where I stand, slack jawed at the power and astounding beauty.

Just as I become lost in the beauty of a wave, I used to go blissfully MIA in this song and album, amongst so many.

A snippet of the lyrics here (the whole schmear here):

Once you were tethered
And now you are free
Once you were tethered
Well now you are free
That was the river
This is the sea!

Now if you're feelin' weary
If you've been alone too long
Maybe you've been suffering from
A few too many
Plans that have gone wrong
And you're trying to remember
How fine your life used to be
Running around banging your drum
Like it's 1973
Well that was the river
This is the sea!

Now you say you've got trouble
You say you've got pain
You say've got nothing left to believe in
Nothing to hold on to
Nothing to trust
Nothing but chains
You're scouring your conscience
Raking through your memories
Scouring your conscience
Raking through your memories
But that was the river
This is the sea yeah!

Behold the sea!