tropical reef

I have just been snorkelling over a tropical reef, here in the Maldives. And as usual, I am amazed by the reef life. It is like being transported to a different planet: so many amazing life forms, the corals, the fish. And so unlikely: the brightly coloured fish like some strange psychedelic artwork, and all the different forms of the coral.

And this reef has reminded me of the abundance of life, and also how unlikely it all is. Really one could not dream it up, however good an imagination one has. And this is the great beauty of life: the variety, the abundance.

But the other thing I noticed, whilst snorkelling on the reef, is that the most life, the most abundance, the greatest variety, was right at the edge, just where the reef dropped off into the depths of the ocean. And it was this that touched me most, and reminded me that that's where we are most alive as well: when we are living life at the edge, really at the very boundary of where we feel we can survive. In the shallower water life is easy, there are no threats, there are no sharks. But on the reef, in the shallower areas, there is less and less life. The vibrancy, the real sense of the intensity of life, comes right at that edge. The edge beyond which there is the abyss.

And today snorkelling, I was reminded to live life this way too: at the edge, always facing the abyss, the unknown, being prepared to go there.