Something I love about living on a boat again is that I feel so much closer to nature. Wind and waves matter. Sunrise and sunset matters. The moon phase and tides and rain. They all matter.
I didn’t realize until I moved back how immune I’d become to the environment. The weather forecast simply determined what clothes I wore, not my schedule. We power through life according to our own plan, regardless of the weather’s cooperation.
Only for the occasional earthquake or tsunami or hurricane or tornado do we wake up to realize that life as we know it could be gone tomorrow.
Last week I sat with my eyes glued to the screen watching live video feeds of massive tornadoes (like this one) ripping through the Southeast. The sun rose the next day on tremendous destruction and devastation.
Seeing such wrath, I couldn’t help but think about how we aren’t here because we humans are so smart and have opposable thumbs and fancy degrees and good medicine and brick houses.
We’re here on this Earth because we’re allowed to be. There’s no promise of tomorrow.
And I’m not really sure what I’m trying to say, but maybe it’s time to develop a closer relationship with the world we live in. Not the world according to CNN or Fox News or TMZ. The world as it was created billions of years ago.
Take some time to stop viewing the world through everyone else’s eyes and spend some time experiencing it for yourself.
It’s a pretty amazing place.
I never feel more at home than when I’m outside. Whether it’s in the ocean, on a cliff, or surrounded by trees. There is no better feeling than seeing a glimpse of the way the Earth started out before roads and machinery overtook it.
Great post.
Right on and write on, Bo.
Love this post!
You just made my brain jump back to my wedding day….remember the hike we all took to Preaching Rock? We read this quote from John Muir when we made it to the top….
“This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls….”
Thanks for the reminder of that awesome day and that the ole ’round earth rolls’.
Preach on friend. You’re awesome.
So true. Bo! The real connection is inside all of us. We are made out of the same stuff. It’s all around us and we don’t need some anchor or over paid opinionators to tell us differently.
Well said my friend! I’ve had the same realization I’ve been out to see. There’s nothing like a Caribbean sunset, or the sun rising over the mountains. It’s the little things that take my breath away.
I agree! I never feel more close to God and creation than when I’m at the beach at sunset, looking out across the waters.
Bo,
Excellent post. I witnessed the destruction first hand in Joplin. Helping one of my fellow sailors. I’ve never seen such terrible damage. You’re right we are here because we are allowed to be….
Mike Mangione
Delfina II (Now “sea change”
Fayetteville, AR
So true Bo. We live in a sterile world where remotes and keys make things happen. We are immune from the weather and the waves of nature’s power rushing by, sometimes with great fury and destruction.If we don’t understand nature, we cannot understand each other.