On the Sails of Life

Life is life....we go through it with hopes and dreams, we make plans, but yet, life being what it is does not always go according to our plans. Life being much bigger than we are sometimes sets our course for us. Its like sometimes we have no other choice than to go with the flow.

The ocean is life. And although its path is entertwined more closely with our lives than we many times realize (inland or sea side), its inhabitants seem to be realms from our own. Or are they? Perhaps the life of the ocean is just much more in tune than we are. Accepting its fates much more readily (and for forever unknown reasons) than we do.

Case in point....the By the Wind Sailor. Its name to me can be romantic....not in the way of love as most think of the term romantic, but in the way of life, of its bitter sweetness, and how we would all love to live life. And its name is so right to the point--I love the simplicity that simple people used eons ago to describe life and its forms. Let's not go the route of the scientist here! Although the By the Wind Sailors scientific name, velella velella , has its own charm! This By the Wind Sailor pictured above was washed up on a beach on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in May 2009. Along with many others.

The By the Wind Sailor is but the size of a quarter on a big ocean. It is a hydroid (jellyfish) that is harmless to humans but feeds voraciously on tiny fish eggs, copepods, and other marine life as they sail in temperate and tropical oceans worldwide. As you can see this sailor is a bright blue with a transparent sail on top. A beautiful, beautiful creature...as much in death as in life. An interesting thing about these sails is that they are either right sailing or left sailing. So as they are at the oceans mercy of where and when they go, it depends on the direction of the winds of which type you will see stranded on the beach at a given time. And they will all be of that type. If you were a By the Wind Sailor and the winds were in your favor, you would continue to sail the high seas that day. If not, you would end up like this sailor and be beached and at the end of your time. So just as we are at the mercy of life and know not where the road will take us, the By the Wind Sailor is at the mercy of the seas. But as we go through life mostly worrying about the path we get steered down, the By the Wind Sailor just goes with the flow and accepts its given direction. There has to be something said of faith here. If we could all have this faith and go with the flow how much more simple and rewarding life could be! Not to worry about tomorrow and just sail long in the day. Some days the winds are with us, some days they are against us--but not ours to control. The circle of life can be comparable whether on land or sea. I find it fascinating of the lessons in life we can learn by observing some of the smallest life forms on earth. There has to be something said of faith here....