I sit here at my desk a few minutes before the new decade arrives. I just had a great dinner with good friends, all of which I only know through diving in Cozumel. I find myself reflecting (like we all seem to do this time of year) on what events have shaped my now. What things caused me to sit here at my desk in Cozumel right now?
10 years ago to this minute I was a new diver. We were welcoming in a new millennium. I was in the middle of my 10th open water dive. Actually I was not in open water. It was in a cavern in Ginnie Springs Florida. I was certified a week prior in California and I was on my very first dive trip. I was 35 feet under in a 73 degree fresh water cavern. There were 30 other divers in the same cavern but there was plenty of room. It was dark. We had all turned our lights off. It was really dark. Darker than normal dark. Normally when we can’t see we still can feel the sound waves around us and, even if it is unconsciously, we still feel our surroundings fairly well. In a cave underwater with no light you lose all sense of space and position. Your mind plays tricks. You think you see lights, sometimes your eyes flash to the sides as if a strobe was firing. You hear only your breath. You feel only your bubbles and the gentle flow of the water around you. It is the finest bit of sensory deprivation I have ever known.
Then in the distance the lead divers shake up chemical lights and release the liquid into the water stream. At first it seems relatively bright because my eyes are completely adjusted to the darkness. I have maxed out the visual purple in my eyes and still see nothing for there is no light to see, except for the tiny green and orange dots that disperse in the water and drift towards me. At first they seem bright but as they get closer and diffuse into the water of the cavern they become almost invisible. But as my eyes struggle to make out what light is there, I notice the tiny dots of light drifting in 3 dimensional space. It is as if I have been magically transported to a distant universe and I am the only person in it. It is my universe. I own it and I control it. In my mind there is no time. There is no gravity. There is no awareness. The sound of my breath and my beating heart is the only reality I know. I was reborn! My life would never be the same and I knew it the instant they turned the lights back on, that moment when my newly found universe disappeared and I was blasted back to reality.
Now my reality. Back in front of my desk in Cozumel. The experience I had exactly 10 years ago forever transformed my future. Now I am the owner of a successful dive operation in Cozumel Mexico. I show people the universe below the water every day. I take great joy in trying to inspire new divers as I was inspired way back then.
My lifestyle has no resemblance to the cop I was in Los Angeles 10 years ago. I feel detached from that person as if it was not me, and I am thankful. I am in awe of what diving has presented to me. I am humbled by the things I have seen and people I have met. I would have never met these people or experienced such wonders had I not discovered a new world below the surface. But mostly I am fascinated with what might inspire me over the next 10 years.
Open your eyes and see everything before you as if you were a baby! And when you feel inspired don’t be afraid to take what is before you and run with it, because the Universe is yours if you can just see it with new eyes.
Peace.
Tony
