A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch her until at length she is a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says, "There! She's gone!" Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and she is just as able to bear her load of living weight to her destined harbor.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone at my side says, There! She's gone! there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "There she comes!"
SarahLyn in Port Townsend at the finish of the ShipYard Raid and at the helm of a 36ft sailboat in the BVI.
ReplyDeleteJust like the wind filling sails, your words are so beautiful and strong. With this picture of SarahLyn you give us a gift. It is how she is in spirit. Strong and determined and steady with nature - in the wind.
ReplyDeleteThank you Avi