The Philosopher's Corner

Why Sail

Man has been sailing for thousands of years for adventure, for trade, for fishing, to journey, to escape, and to conquer.  He sails for sport, for pleasure and to dream.  He goes in search of both treasure and love.

There have been thousands of stories told, legends made and mysteries left unsolved.  There are great histories that have been molded, memories immortalized in myth, and myths long forgotten.

Some sail to prove their prowess over fellow men, others over Nature.  Some sail for ego, others for friendships.

I am an archaeologist, a photographer, a student of history, a scientist, a writer, an engineer, an inventor, an artist, a story teller, and a dreamer.  I love myths and legends and folktales, stories and tall tales, and I am a romantic.

When I am at a dig, sometimes I am a photographer and sometimes I am a scientist.  When I am photographing, sometimes I am an artist and sometimes I am an inventor.

But when I sail I am all these things.  I let myself go with the wind, immerse my soul into the womb of nature and feel free.  Breath in the scent of seaweed and rain cleansed air.  Watch the sun set in the West to remind me of the direction home.  Hear the cry of a seagull or the flip of a fin breaking the surface of the water.  I am reminded of all the souls that have journeyed this way before and envision those yet to come.  I see the stars overhead and wonder at the journey our small planet is on, sailing the cosmic winds.  I think about the other sailors on other planets, out there among the stars and I know that some of them are looking up and wondering about me.

Sometimes I feel small and as frightened as Odysseus must have felt in the presence of all the monstrous fury of Nature...and sometimes...I feel like a hero sailing into my homeport.

This is why I sail.

Time to be Calm, Time to be Happy

Isn’t that what it’s all about.  I find that whether it's coming closer to nature through my photography or cruising with the winds across a body of water, a calm spirit invades me.  I am always amazed at the wonders that the Great Spirit has set in motion.

Wayne Dyer once asked the question, "How do you make a flower?"

The answer most people came up with is, you put a seed in the ground, add water and soon you will have a flower.

But you know you didn’t make a flower, you just helped one grow. 

All the stuff that allows a seed to grow into a flower is buried deep within the seed.  Somehow that seed knows how to become a flower.  That “somehow” is one of the great mysteries of our Source.  Buried within everything, every one of us, is that “knowing” that comes from our Source.

Now some will say that the “knowing” comes from DNA, those four incredible nucleic acids that combine in a seeming infinite number of ways to create all the diversity of life everywhere on Earth (and in the Universe).  And in a way they are right.  But then you must ask the question, “How do those four nucleic acids know how to form and rearrange themselves?”  It’s a legitimate question.  If we are going to try to understand the “knowing” than this is the path we must take.  And, I think, the answer will surprise you.

There exist 3 stable particles in the Universe that all things are made of, electrons, protons, and neutrons.  Those 3 particles contain the “knowing” for building, not just DNA, but a Universe!  Now take a moment to grasp that concept.  Within every electron, proton, and neutron is a map with which you can construct an entire Universe complete with stars, planets, rocks, minerals, water, life, everything, somehow coded into those 3 tiny particles.

So, now we have a new formula.  Get a bunch of electrons and protons and neutrons, put them in a big blender, shake them up and you will have a Universe!  Incredible that somehow there is a “knowing” here also.  A knowing that again comes from our Source.

You see, everything that can be, that we can be, is already available to us.  If we want to be calm, find peace, it’s there for us.  All we have to do is connect to our Source.  What we give out to the Universe will be returned to us.  That is one of the fundamental mysteries of our connection to Source.  Everything that we could possibly need is already in us, we just have to let it out.

If you want to test this theory, it’s simple.  Wake up tomorrow morning and decide to be nice to everyone you meet.  Smile and say, “Hello.  Have a nice day.  What a lovely morning.  You look great today.”  I guarantee you that people with smile back, they will wish you a nice day, and they will compliment you for looking sharp.

Peace, Love, Happiness, they are available to us all.  You just have to express what our Source put in us and it will be.

There was that great line from the movie, Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.”   That is how our Source works.  If you send it out it will come back.