“Here be Dragons” appeared on a globe in the sixteenth century when no explanation could be given of what lies outside the edge of the famous ocean. Sailors and explorers were the astronauts of their time, ventured into distant places and brought back stories of what they had found.
One of those explorers stopped in the Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa for supplies before venturing over the Atlantic Ocean. A small, modest chapel in Las Palmas, on one of the primary islands, wears a plaque with the double wooden doors. In Spanish it reads: “In this holy place, Columbus prayed.” I stood next to the board and let my photo take, like many tourists do, and tried to imagine what he prayed that night before he put the unknown in the sailing.
During my stay in the Canary Islands, my girlfriends and I were invited to visit the modest house of a flamenco dancer who lived at the beach. She went swimming in the ocean every day and we were told to come after her morning dip. While we walked to her house, we paused to study a statue. As I took the determined expression on the woman’s face, I imagined that she was the wife of a sailor because of the way she stood with hands on her hips, scanning the horizon, trying to catch a glimpse of her husband’s ship who returned to the harbor. I wondered what the woman prayed while her love was gone.
On arrival in the house we noted that our seventy -two year old hostess had pushed the furniture back on her uneven tiled floor. To our delight, she offered my friends and me a dance class.
“Stand up,” said our instructor in Spanish. “One hand on your hip, the other in the air.”
She demonstrated so that, even if we didn’t know the Spanish conditions, we could follow her.
“Kin up. Shoulders back.” She hit a dramatic pose.
“Straighting foot, left foot. Again.”
Stand upright. One hand on your hip, the other in the air. Chin up. Shoulders back. Straight foot, left foot. Again.
She watched how we repeated the steps and shake her head. “No, no, no.” Her finger was directed to me.
“From the stomach up. You have to feel it. Here. So. You have to dance from the stomach up.”
We tried again.
She took me out and asked how old I was.
“Fifty,” I told her.
She shook her head, knocked on her tongue and spoke a series of sentences from my ability to understand Spanish with my high school.
My friend translated. “She says that because you are only fifty, that is the problem. You are not old enough to dance flamenco. No woman can really dance flamenco until she is more than sixty. This is because they have not lived enough, loved enough or lost enough to dance from the stomach.”
The statue of the wife of the seafarer came up in me. Just like the unknown sea, life and all its strangers are all for all of us. Whether we are on the coast with hands on our hips, watching and waiting, or we are those who defy the wild ocean, we are made to take risks and live fully that we can experience the beautiful emotions that come from full life, love and lose.
Since that day I have often thought of the words of our dance instructor. Especially around my birthday, when I am about to add another year to the count. She convinced me that I didn’t want to spend any of my days due to an imminent fear that “be over here.” When I stand for an unknown or discouraging challenge, I want to go through it with the intention of learning to dance from the stomach up.
I also took the message I read on the simple plaque at the door of the Las Palmas Chapel. The best way to start a trip, either on the coast or on the waves, is always with a prayer.
Dragons, lurking in the unknown, or real or proposed, can be killed.
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There is a place for you, by the sea.
By the seaThrough Robin Jones Gunninvites women to the coast to renew their souls while enjoying this collection of stories and reflection inspired by the ocean. Wherever you are, the fascinating stories bring the ocean and all his gifts to you. Together with moving, humorous and heart -warming memories inspired by the beach, Robin shares poems, quotes and scriptures to help you to avert your mind what burden you and bring your focus back to God.
Read more about the book and how you can buy here.