Heading to the Ocean

the stabilizing force of rituals and catching the right wave

We are drifting towards the ocean.
There’s a long and uncertain way till our house, in Quinta do Bem Haja, is finished. So we are seeking for a temporary home.

We are looking in Nazare. Our farm is only 20km away. And this village is a living tapestry of ocean and land weaved together. For us it makes sense to come here.

Photos taken in Nazare by Jean Dieuzaide, French photographer (1921-2003).

Still today, the close knit connection of local people and the ocean is well visible.
Fishing endures as a form of subsistente. And villagers keep on holding into traditions as way to stabilize the dependency to something very volatile: the wild Atlantic waters.

Waters can be very rough in here. They are the dream of experienced surfers. But also the doom of many competent fisherman. In any case the risk is real: one can loose a loved one into the sea.

The seven skirts in Nazare (photo credit unknown).

In my understanding, nazarene women’s skirts are a ritual. As such they are meant to mitigate the danger of a water-centric life. They are displayed in seven layers, one on the top of another. There are many attempts to explain this. I like the most, the one that relates the skirt to the seven waves. Accordingly to the tradition, at the seventh wave the ocean calms down. When man returned from the sea, they needed to wait for the seventh wave so that to find safe harbor. At the beach, woman used the skirt as a rosary to count till seven - so that to catch the right wave.

In my previous article Moving Mountains, I share about the big challenges we are facing with our project in Portugal. In drifting towards Nazare, I foresee that dreams and doom are very close to each other -just as birth is so close to death. It reckon that navigating waters like this, in uncertainty and vulnerability, ritual and traditions are a valuable stabilizing force.

So in Nazare, I will pay attention to rituals. Maybe I will wear the seven skirts. Then while standing at shores of the Atlantic ocean, I will gently hold into them. One by one, as I count till seven. Because there is a right wave. We only need to catch it.