You’re alone and yet completely the opposite when you go sailing.
On the boat, the rest of the world doesn’t matter. You can’t interact with anyone or anything on land, and on longer journeys, you can’t even send them a text. The only people you have for company are those with you. They are your entire world.
Even when you are alone on your boat, you are not alone. People on other boats in other little worlds wave at you as you pass by. The waves reach up and splash your boat gently, caressing the hull of the boat and push you along, even if it’s not in the direction you want to go. Dolphins come up and swim alongside of your boat if you’re sailing in the right places, just as excited to see you on your boat as you are to see them in their own world.
The wind whips up spray from the tops of the waves, setting down small water droplets on your face to cool you off from the hot sun and then whisking them away again as soon as they came, taking with them your sweat and your worries and gently pushing the hair out of your face and off of your damp cheeks.
And the boat plows on, flying through the waves as if it were a plane and the waves themselves were only clouds in the sky. Perhaps, if you were on the right boat, you actually would be flying above the level of the waves, nothing in the water but a small keel and a small rudder.
If you’re the protagonist of your story, your boat is your constant companion and best friend. And perhaps the sea is more than that. Whatever body of water you’re sailing on can simultaneously be the best friend from childhood-- someone that you know in and out, someone that supports you in everything and knows you better than anyone else-- and it can also be the antagonist of the story.
Because even though you’re powerful and your boat is powerful, the ocean is even more so. It’s more powerful and yet still more beautiful than anything anyone can comprehend. The ocean doesn’t just ask to be respected, it earns every ounce of respect it’s given. It has the power to swallow up people, buildings, entire civilizations. It has the power to change lives, to destroy everything that once existed.
And yet, right now it laps up softly against your boat, splashing you gently in the face, guiding its dolphins towards you to say hello. Right now, it reflects the many stars in the sky with the miniature lights in the water. Right now, it reflects the light of the moon, displaying a silvery pathway to the horizon, lighting up your journey home. Right now, it puts a smile on your face and sends you off for the adventure of a lifetime.
