WHEN YOU’RE UNDERWATER, it is so crystal clear that we’re all interconnected. Your senses are fully alert and awake, including your intuitive and spiritual self. On land we feel like singular individuals. As soon as you drop beneath the surface and are scuba diving, you absolutely feel part of — you’re filled with awe and wonder.

I had seen the movie My Octopus Teacher and was hoping to have an octopus encounter; but I figured that would be too high on a wish list. We were diving in Florida, and lo and behold, there was an Atlantic longarm octopus. I thought, Stay calm; inch clos-er. I got maybe two feet away, and I just lay on the bottom, and I was looking at it, and it was looking at me. I thought, If I go too close, it’ll scurry away. So, I just reached my hand out to about halfway between it and me. All of a sudden, it wrapped the tip of its leg around my index finger, probably about three wraps, and we were looking right into each other’s eyes. It was like Moses and God on Mount Sinai. We were looking right into each other’s souls, and I could feel its little tentacles checking me out. I just stayed there, and it maintained its grip. Eventually it unwrapped and drew its arm back in. We kept looking at each other and I was practically giggling and crying thinking, This is the coolest thing ever.

As a parish priest, you just preach your heart out and wonder if you’re doing any good. You wonder if anything’s changing. When I was on sabbatical, I thought, Hey, why not start with the young adults, see if they want to get certified in scuba. If you take people underwater, they can experience it for themselves. They come up from their first dive and you look at their face and it’s Yep, they got it. You no longer need words.