There’s something about the sea and the beach that pull the Lenten crowd anytime, anywhere.

 My friends were trying to get a booking at a Boracay resort and what they got was the reply, “We’re sorry we’re full for the holiday but we’ll let you know if there’s a cancellation.” Not just one, but two, three, four hotels and resorts gave that reply to their phone call.

They know that the possibility of a cancellation is as remote as having hail on a summer day in the tropics. That’s why they’re not expecting any good accommodation.  To improvise the sign, it doesn’t read “No room in the Inn” anymore. “All rooms taken in the hotel,” that’s what Boracay is now but people keep on coming, like my friends, who are optimistic, hoping against home that there must  be some decent room or cottage somewhere that can take them in no matter how cramped with leisure seekers  the island is.

Boracay is, by itself,  the lure. But more than the white sand, the stunning sunset and the vibrant night life, people go there and to other beaches for a number of different reasons. Either for relaxation, meditation or just pure escape from the hustle of urban living – many of us find time to go down to the sea. We can laze under the sun, get a good tan, enjoy the breeze that sways the leaves of the palm  in a sleepy rhythm, take a relaxing evening deep in the waters, row a fisherman’s boat around or simply relish the fresh and juicy grilled fish cuts while watching the horizon turn from orange to darkness and see the starts twinkling above .

Whatever the reason is, for a doctor friend, it all boils down to the belief that life close to the sea has some healthy and healing effects. He said the salt from the sea apparently offers a relieving touch to our body that rejuvenates both mind and spirit even if the flesh may have been weakened by stress at work and in the city.

While a trek to the mountain could just be as exciting, the experience may not be good for all, especially those with weak hearts and low endurance level. The love of the sea reminds us of one piece in high school literature, a poem by  English writer John Masefield, who wrote:

“I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over. “

As a tribute to the sea and oceans, or water in general,  which we must safeguard from degradation and human abuse, we are running back page a pictorial feature – my personal collection of some of the finest I have taken  have taken in recent trips in the country and abroad.

Truly, for their cleansing power, bodies of water are  iconic of today’s Easter occasion of renewal and spiritual rejuvination.