The Sea in Me

Cody Simpson with Jess Black

Amandine Thomas

Puffin, 2024

32pp., hbk., RRP $A19.99

9781761049965

A hot summer’s day and everyone seems to have had the same idea – to go to the beach. Rows of beach tents block the breeze, the jingle of the ice cream van is on repeat, the towels are so close they are touching and even the seagulls are grumpy as they squabble over spilled chips.  The sights and sounds are so overpowering and overwhelming that there is just one solution – to go for a swim , dive deep below the waves and relax…

The sounds from above are hazy and lost to me.
I can only hear my heartbeat, slow and steady.

Far below the hubbub above, there is peace and quiet and the sea creatures go about their lives as they have always done in a slow, repetitive rhythm that soothes jangled nerves and calms the soul in a magical way.

Sometimes, whether it is a physical experience like being at an overcrowded beach, or just embroiled in life itself, we will all feel that it is all too much and we just need to get away, to find solace in silence and stillness, to go to where the only sound is the inner voice in your head and listen to it.  And with today’s busy, frenetic lifestyle and all the outside noise imposing itself even on our youngest, this is a wonderful allegory to share to help them find that inner peace, whether that be under the waves or high in a tree or perched on a rock or snuggled under the blankets.  We all have a “sea” that is our sanctuary. 

Cody Simpson is a name that will be familiar to many – as a musician, aspiring Olympian and now writer he is well-qualified to write about the outside noise and pressures on his life.  Listening to an interview with Giaan Rooney immediately after just failing to make the Olympic team to go to Paris, this book could not have a more timely release.  He spoke of a time when he had to shut down all the distractions and listen to the voice of 12-year-old Cody telling him that he was a talented swimmer at that early age and had the potential to go far, and it was up to him to realise it.  The most powerful message though, comes from the ending – even though he didn’t achieve his ultimate goal, he gave it his all and he wasn’t going to go through life wondering “What if…” But it was that initial act of actively seeking that solitude and seclusion that allowed him to hear that voice that sparked the dream that was so critical.

So whether this book is just used as a peek at what is underneath the waves, or as part of a mindfulness program that encourages students to look deep within to find their “sea” and what it is telling them, it has a place for a wide audience and a message that goes far beyond the celebrity’s name on the cover.  Even if not as an Olympian or a musician, Simpson has offered himself as a role model of an entirely different sort.