Unknotted...

... for Knots in the String.

And so, the year winds down.

In our house anyway…

Because we’ve opted for a Christmas Day just for the grandson and with all the rest of the panoply left at the gate and just a family BBQ in the evening, it feels as if we’re floating toward the new year. A feather on the wind, Pooh-sticks gliding along the river, clouds drifting in the sky, waves stroking a shore.

Normally, because of Christmas stressors, one hurtles toward the new year with barely a thought of what was good in the year past and what good things one would like to happen in the next year. And whilst this year has hit like a wrecking ball, I think we need to step back. Musing, I would call it. Playing with ideas and words of what a new year, a new life might be. Jotting down the thoughts. Or filing them in the cabinets within the mind for perusing later.

Take time. Make time…

This little cottage proves itself daily – the new, dense, wool carpet makes one feel as if one is walking on air. Our footsteps in the sitting room and bedrooms are disguised, the pup walks as if on thistledown. The polished boards have a soft patina. Our space feels bigger, Tardis-like. I scan the walls and note that every picture in the house is sea-related; even the small hand-dyed and embroidered piece by a Bruny Island artist. Ha, no surprises there.

A wonderful ‘review’ of the power of the sea crossed my path on Facebook with no validation by august scientists but at the same time, I felt utterly vindicated for living within sight and sound of the sea:

If you’ve ever walked into the ocean and felt like your whole life reset — this is the reason.
Most people think the sea “relaxes you.” But scientists discovered something far more extreme: saltwater doesn’t just calm the body — it reprograms it.

1️⃣ Sea water shuts down your stress responses within minutes.
The ocean is rich in negative ions — the same ones used in expensive therapy devices. When they hit your skin, your nervous system drops out of fight-or-flight. Your heart rate changes. Your muscles unlock. Your breath deepens without effort. That “sudden peace” you feel? It’s your biology surrendering.

2️⃣ Salt minerals pull emotional tension out of the body.
Magnesium, potassium, and trace elements in seawater regulate the same neurochemicals that store emotional pain. That’s why people cry at the beach without knowing why. The ocean isn’t triggering sadness — it’s releasing what your body has been holding for years.
3️⃣ The ocean forces your brain into a ‘blue-mind’ state.
The sound of waves + the movement of water + the visual horizon = a perfect formula that shuts off overthinking.
4️⃣ Sea water boosts oxytocin — the feminine hormone of connection.
That soft, grounded, sensual feeling after a swim? It’s not “vacation mode. ” It’s hormonal alignment. Saltwater literally raises oxytocin levels, which increases trust, warmth, intuition, and emotional clarity. You feel more like yourself. The ocean restores your sense of scale.
Standing in front of something so vast recalibrates your mind. It shrinks anxiety. It expands perspective. You stop obsessing over small problems because your nervous system remembers that Life is bigger than one bad day.

That’s why people return from the sea calmer, clearer, and more awake. The ocean isn’t entertainment — it’s medicine…

I found a poem by Australian poet Libby Hathorn and I thought this week of all weeks, its apt. A reclamation if you like. Below is an extract…

Bondi Supreme

Your moods flow as ours

as push and pull of tides.

Faces to the wind,

waves to the beach,

horizon to the sky,

ours for the looking.

The bathers, the surfers, the board riders,

the watchers, the listeners, the learners…

… The dip, the plunge, the shock, the dream.

Timeless exuberance, Bondi Beach supreme.

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In the light of this terrible global year, I hope everyone has found time to wind down and float with Knots in the String over these last months. If ever the account has had a purpose, it’s most likely been to give the reader time to relax and float away from a very taut and unkind world. Maybe Knots in the String is a kind of ‘muzak’ online – not necessarily the kind of account that snaps up the algorithms, but the kind that loosens the knots in your own strings…

Peace to all and perhaps we will talk to each other in the Between Time…

Music? Another Kelly Boesch.

She created this one this week, after the world had been so hurt. Someone made the comment that the melody and words could be a peaceful Christmas classic. I agree.