The ocean saved my life

I’m not completely sure if my kind of “worship” fits the criteria of what witchcraft actually is. I don’t build alters (I want to start though… for Hellenic deities) but I think this is somewhat the best place to share this experience.

Since I was little, I worshipped the ocean. I talked to it, I prayed to it, I “took care” of it (I remember approaching random tourists and teaching them specific ways to respect the ocean as its own sacred figure). The ocean is a very big aspect of my culture and I grew up hearing stories of gods and goddesses of the sea at school and by my elders.

My home was abusive. I was eleven the night I had yet another very bad physical fight with my mom, and so I ran away. And I ran and ran and didn’t stop. Never even feeling tired. I didn’t really have a place in mind where I was running to but I found myself at the beach. I wanted to drown myself so I ran to the ocean.

But when I tried going deeper into it, I couldn’t even get past my knee level because the current was so strong. Stronger than I’d ever felt it before.

I’ve been bonded to this sea since I was four. I know what it’s like at every hour at every day.

I kept tripping and being dragged back. I would try again harder but the same thing would happen.

Then I fainted and collapsed. Probably from all the running finally catching up to me. Then I wake up. I’m completely safe, laying on the sand with the shoreline far from me.

When things get hard for me again, I remember this moment. I remember the ocean holding me and telling me that it’s not my time. And even now through that memory, it still continues to save my life.