From The Belly Button of the Ocean

clipped from www.mydivinglife.com

The Nudibranch is my passion; I shall always want more.

They maketh me to dive in clean and dirty waters: They leadeth me

beside intertidal pools.

They restoreth my soul: They leadeth me into the realm of academics

for its name sake.

Yea, though I swim through the gutters of sharks and eels I fear no
nudibranch: they are found there: my twin tanks and dive reel comfort
me.

They preparest a photographic feast before me in the presence of my
divebuddy: they anointest my gloves with slime; my specimen bottle runneth
over.

Surely the need for the next species and controversy of identification
shall follow me all the dives of my life and I will branch in the seas

forever.

-David Mullins 2008

clipped from scubapro25.blogspot.com

"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,

and danced the depths on laughter-silvered wings;

downward I've dropped, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sunlit kelp...and golden fish, and done a hundred things
you have not dreamed of....wheeled and soared and swung.....

deep in the dark blue silence.

Hov'ring there........

I've chased the seaward currents along, and flung

myself through footless halls of ocean green.

Down, down, down...the long, delirious burning depths,

I've descended with easy grace......

And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

the high untrespassed sanctity of the Deep...

...put out my hand, and...... touched the face of God."

--with apologies [and thanks] to John McGee,

author of 'High Flight'