But won't it break my neck?

I was watching seabirds plummet into the ocean this afternoon, breaking the water from great heights without a moments hesitation. The violence of the point of contact felt extreme but they didn’t shy away from the hit. They just absolutely sent it.

I guess they’re hungry.

Quite a few summers ago I jumped off the bridge down the other end of the beach into the lagoon here and accidentally left one of my arms flailing instead of sandwiching it to my side. I almost ripped it out of its socket, and that was from only a couple of metres up.

So how are these birds hitting the water headfirst and not snapping their necks?

This question took me down a google-shaped-rabbit hole (of course) where I discovered the birds are using a technique called plunge diving and it involves Physics Things like impact orientation, compressive loads, axial force as well as unique biological morphology blah blah blah…

At the risk of criminally oversimplifying, it basically adds up to this: right at the point when you’d think it would hurt most, plunging sea birds kind of relax their necks, seal their nostrils and their unique biological musculature takes over so they bend instead of breaking.

They go with it, without fear. And they come out of it intact, often with a fish in their beaks.

They’re seabirds. It’s part of the territory.

So I was sitting there in the sun thinking how nice it would be if humans could do that a little more, too.

We’re so determined to avoid pain and hard things. We’ll do almost anything to avoid the moment of impact.

Why? I guess maybe we don’t trust we’re built well enough to withstand it. What if our nostrils don’t seal??

I plunge dived something difficult last week that I’d known was coming for a while. I did all the usual things we all do to avoid it and at the actual point of contact, felt myself holding my breath and fighting off tears.

But then my beak hit the water. It was not comfortable. I did flail. But I wasn’t alone and my nostrils did seal.

And there was an undeniable relief in just smashing through. There's relief in letting yourself go and facing what you have to face, because most things aren't going anywhere. And you can’t fly around up there, hungry, forever.

None of this is to say that confronting things isn't painful, or that suffering of any kind is quickly over. It's not.

But. Experience shows that most often we do bend rather than break. Because we’re human. And stronger than we think.

So anyway, it's not a perfect analogy by any means, but here’s to diving sea bids, and confronting hard things and trusting that we’re built well enough to withstand the impact… maybe even to coming up with a fish in our beaks, if that’s your thing ;)

Here's to knowing we won't break our necks.