Infinity and a smiling seal

I recently returned from a week in a village on the Norfolk coast. It was a lovely, renewing time, of solitude and sunshine, evening strolls to watch the setting sun, and the daily bliss of long walks on near-empty, endless beaches, beneath equally endless skies. I wrote about this last year, and as I searched for the post, I realised I have written several times on themes around the infinite and the uncontained. Why am I so fascinated by this? I don't know: but as I walked and gazed on endlessness, prayed and pondered, I recalled times when my prayer and reflection have led me, with joyous, awed excitement, to places beyond a discernible beginning, or indeed, end. 

And at the heart of all this, as I wrote last year, lies a Love which is vaster and wider and immeasurably more infinite than anything I can ever know, or see or experience... Lies a Love which is the cause of all my joy, and of my fascination. 

But this week filled with infinity ended with a very close encounter! On my last day I went for a final, long walk, heading into more deserted stretches of beach. As I walked, with no end in mind, I became aware that I was completely alone within this vastness; a family walking behind me had turned back, and were now mere dots in the distance - as tiny as I must have seemed to them. Ahead there was no-one, only miles of lapping waves and sand, segmented by groynes. Delighting in this space and vastness I paused by a groyne, looked around, and... literally jumped with surprise! Just a few yards away, on the shoreline, lay a seal, basking contentedly in the sunshine. 

I had read about the seals at the nature reserve at Blakeney Point, about 20 miles away. I'd heard that, away from there, the occasional head might sometimes be seen bobbing in the water. But I had never, even in my dreams, imagined that I might encounter a seal in such a close, personal way!

For several minutes we regarded each other. I told him he was beautiful, and his mouth curved into a smile (yes, it really did!), remaining so for the rest of this encounter. He was beautiful, because he was so unexpected, gifting me with this long moment of connection, drawing me from the infinite to the immediate - from contemplating distant horizons to something much, much closer. And then back to the infinite, slowly moving into the sea, his body arched, his neck sleekly, gracefully stretched, as if offering me his best side for some final photos... One final look round at me, and then he dived into the the next wave, emerging as a distant, bobbing head several seconds later.

And I... I eventually turned and slowly began to walk back, my week of infinity having ended with this surprising, and very special, close encounter...