Sunrise | Sunset

Sunrise, Sunset. I have learned on this trip that the sunsets and sunrises look a lot a like. When by boat there are not always familiar markers to help your brain denote east from west. As you watch the rich, yellow, red or orange circle of light on the horizon you know whether it is a sunset or a sunrise. I suppose that depending on the type of day or night a person was having there could be room for confusion but let us hope that does not happen to anyone to often, if ever. The sun on the water tends to take on a wavering effect as you look at it. I imagine that a similar thing happens in the desert; there is so much to reflect on. In photographs, taken in unfamiliar places, here is no way to tell if you are looking at a sunrise or a sunset, unless you remember it specifically. My unsolicited advice is take notes so when you get your film back you know what you are looking at. Maybe it does not really matter, maybe that is why the song from the musical, Fiddler on the Roof, runs through my head, "Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset". Perhaps it only matters, which it is, if you plan to frame the print and label it for display.

I am reading "Fireside" by Mary Summer Rain (Hampton Roads Publishing). She has written more than twenty books, I believe. This one is the sharing of her philosophical views as if she were sharing them from a fireside chat with a very good friend. In one chapter she talks about wisdom, the tools and qualities of wisdom, in particular she names acceptance.

I quote from her book here for a moment, as a way of sharing my review of it with you, "Acceptance is wisdom. Wisdom is power. Therefore, acceptance is power. Some folks view acceptance as being a wimp. It's not. Neither is it lying down and playing dead or letting others walk all over you. It's not being any kind of weakling. It's the strength and power of a thorough understanding of behavioral diversity among humanity."

"With wisdom of acceptance one has the power to easily override negative emotions, reactions, and attitudes. It instills the power to gracefully accept the bad behavior of others without inciting negativity with self. This is not apathy. This is the power of wisdom." Mary Summer Rain continues.

"Acceptance is an absolute. It possesses the quality of nonjudgement. It's world view is not fragmented into nations or races, but rather sees everyone as a human being. This then means that racism, sexism, and prejudice do not exist with the heart and mind of the one who has attained this powerful tool of wisdom."

"Living through each say,, week, and year of one's life is to experience a thrilling, and unending presentation of gifts. Some gifts aren't needed and, truth be told, can actually be unwanted, yet they are 'accepted' with grace just the same. Life's misfortunes are presented along with life's blessings, both received with a great depth of understanding when one has the power of acceptance .....Acceptance is also letting go. It's releasing the compelling lure to understand another's behavior. Acceptance is the impetus that soothingly eases one forward into a gentle state where healing begins to take hold. Acceptance brings a growing measure of inner serenity."

Mary uses analogies a lot in her writing. Two stood out in my mind since they were nautically oriented and I am on a sailing vessel. She said about having acceptance: "For me, it was like a winch that pulled me up out of the mental mire I'd gotten myself into while trying to understand someone's behavior."

I find, when I am ready to move on with new concepts, that something I have observed in nature accents my acceptance. Today my conversation with myself about sunsets and sunrises was accented by this passage in "Fireside". I am willing to accept the sun's rising and setting time as a beautiful gift of serenity and grace in my life whether it is in the morning or the evening no longer matters. I know that I am ready to apply this to other aspects of my life in the future.

Mary Summer Rains goes on to add that "Patience is power. Patience is a quality of wisdom .....Patience holds hands with perseverance. Waiting. The waiting for something to happen can literally destroy one. Impatience causes stress ands tress wears down the immune system quicker than any other life factor. Impatience keeps one focused on a singular element, which, in turn, prevents awareness of the living moment. Impatience breeds negativity. It makes one crabby and short with others. It can steal life away. Impatience and the anxiety is creates can become a cancer that eats away everything in one's life, even the physical self."

I should clarify that the book goes on to explain that short term patience and anticipation are okay, they can add to the experience, she was talking about long term waiting.

More importantly she goes on to sum up wisdom and power in a single-word. "Attitude! Having the right attitude is wisdom. It's power." By power she goes on to say that "Being yourself is power. It's wisdom. Having the power to freely express your beingness brings the wisdom of understanding that all people are diverse in their individuality as the bird of the air, the fish of the sea and, in that understanding, do we celebrate life ....Gentleness, and inner serenity is power." I want more of that ...I have been at sea for seven days. My mind still works overtime, my dreams at night are like visits with angels and the people in my life, working out the ripples. This trip is grace for me. I want to develop more serenity and grace in my life. I want to be able to remain calm when the sea around me is in turmoil. I realize now that by being still I can help calm the turmoil.

One of the concepts that really hit home for me, in her book, was that she said sometimes in her life she gets too caught up in trying too explain too much. Or, if not explain too much, she forgets about the diversity among peoples at times and offers them more than they are ready for. Her analogy for that was that she was "trying to give them a yacht when all they were ready for was a rowboat."

Sometimes I get so excited about concepts that I plunge ahead in the conversation without stopping to listen to the person I am talking to. Well, actually I am usually talking so fast there is no place for them to jump in. I am working on slowing down. I think these type of conversations, among friends, who have been thinking about similar issues, takes on a momentum of it's own, like the wake of a boat bouncing off the shoreline. To some of us it is exciting to ride the pulpit of the boat, following it's motion in a dance, balancing, waves nipping at our feet, the risk of falling; others just get seasick. Yet others find this type of motion disrupting; conversations that bounce around like the bow of the boat, some may consider brainstorming, others may consider rude. Ah, diversity... plan for it. Be patient. Find out if what they really want is a row boat, a speed boat, a tug boat, a trawler, or a sailing yacht. Some may want a tanker others may be content with a paddle boat.

Tonight we are anchored on the Waccamaw River, south of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The osprey are nesting, nearby, at the top of a cypress tree. One of the pair just flew by with a fish for his family. I can hear the babies calling for dinner. This entire river runs through a forest of cypress. Most of them are tall, thin trees, they have grown to close together over the years. There is one ancient cypress on the far side of our anchorage that looks as if it would take more than one person to wrap arms around it. Others grow fat at the base, like pony tail palm trees, as they reach down into the water. As I look at the trees growing out of the water, right up to and beyond its edge, I imagine it must feel a bit like this on the Amazon. The frogs serenade us as we settle down for sleep.

Sunrise, sunset. They appear in the same way, along the horizon, yet they come indifferent shapes, different colors, they go in different directions. We accept their beauty either way. People do the same. Sunrise, sunset.