A Little Dory Story
I am looking on my bookshelf now and in one corner of a shelf is a photo. This photo is of a dory that I built a number of years back. While it was a nice looking boat, it was not outstanding and didn't win me any builder awards. But to me it was and is my touchstone to a moment in time.
I had rowed my dory all day along the shores of the island. Resting from time to time, putting out a line in promising spots but not really caring if I caught anything. Evening came with a sunset that stuck in the mind. A color to the sky that glowed and burned and then went darker and darker until the stars began to spread from horizon to horizon. It was marvelously warm and the water was smooth as glass. I wasn't far from the shore and I could hear the lap of the water on the beaches. It was a time in my life when I didn't have to be any place at any time and just decided to stay out on the water. Why not?
As I rowed along in the darkness, I began to see the phosphorescence each time my oars plunged into the water. It was spellbinding. If you haven't seen this strange and eerie effect, you've got a treat coming when you finally do see it. The light is caused by a little thing called Dinoflagellates. No, I'm not making this up. It's a little creature in the ocean that emits light when it is disturbed due to a chemical reaction inside it's body. Aside from the scientific description, another way to describe it is simply "WOW".
That night, in the dark with the stars overhead, in my little dory, I sat spellbound as I watched the glowing light each time I rowed. Then, I leaned over the side and dipped my hand in the water and my amazement went into overdrive. My hand was glowing like in a science fiction movie. I tell you no lie when I say that I drifted along oblivious to all except the incredible things that were going on right there next to me in the water surrounding my boat. Times like that stick in the mind. They are the reason we live. Those moments that take us by surprise and leave us speechless and marvelling in the grandeur of it all. Those moments that we take with us for the rest of our lives.
Boats like my little dory have a way of opening our lives to moments like that. So I keep this photo nearby and sometimes when the pace of life is too much, I sit back and look at the photo and get transported back to when I first saw the glowing lights in the water. It's a long time ago but seems like only yesterday.
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