🤿 FIELD GUIDE 34: The depths she’ll reach

Welcome to FURTHER AFIELD, our monthly foray outside FFOREST for stories and ideas we think you’ll love.

Alenka Artnik is one of the best freedivers in the world. The Depths She’ll Reach tells her story from suicidally deep despair to calmly reaching ocean depths that would kill you and me.

“Our bodies are slightly less dense than water, so we float near the surface and need to kick hard to dive down. But the deeper we go, the more the water above squeezes us. As the pressure increases, so does our density. Eventually, it becomes too much, and we start to sink like a stone. There’s no need to kick. Gravity takes us – we’re in free fall.

“Alenka surrenders to the pressure, and it’s the most amazing feeling. As she descends, she is nowhere but in the present moment, and nothing above the service of the water – not even her own identity – exists. She is alone, but she feels connected to everything.”

Alenka’s story is on Long Lead, the most beautiful in-depth journalism site I’ve ever seen. It’s worth spending a lot of time there.

I’ve been reading John Michael Greer since way back when he was just a little archdruid. Last week he posted an essay about writing – the fact that you can write, how our education systems teach us we can’t and drive us to hate writing, and how to write if you want to get started. Some of his brushstrokes are overly broad. It would have been nice if he had given credit to the amazing teachers who make education happen from within a broken system. But I think he well and truly smashes some nails right on the head.

“You can write. If you’re like most people, however, you’re convinced that you can’t write well enough to get published. You were taught to think that, and it’s worth understanding why.”

John’s essay inspired my TREE posts this week. John has a diverse and intelligent audience. A lot of the comments are worth reading too.

Christine sent me this Mark Knopflerish tune from Kurt Vile. It fits because it’s from an album titled “b’lieve i’m goin down…” (Spotify).

Perhaps you are thinking it’s time for you to start hitting the publish button. If so, I do recommend the Substack platform. (This is my personal referral link. I think if enough people use it, Substack sends me free kittens? I know there’s no money involved. I hope it’s kittens.)

Happy weekend
Jeff