Winds of Change

The fog is closing in. It’s difficult to see even a few hundred feet in front of our home. The sea lions are back, popping their heads out of the water. The pelicans are too, and the hummingbirds. The cycles of nature have returned to the way I remember them—the way they were last summer when we moved to the San Francisco Bay.

It’s funny, when we first arrived here, I thought the way things were was the way things would always be. I believed the sea lions, pelicans and hummingbirds would be constant, forgetting that like humans, animals of the earth need to get certain things done at certain times. Unlike humans (or at least this one!), however, they seem to know exactly what to do when, as if being directed by a flow of energy bigger than they.

Sometimes I envy this simplicity. I would love it if simply by the currents of the sea, the fog or direction of the breeze, I would know what to do, or where to go. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were no pondering, wondering, planning or rational thought necessary to make the decisions related to life?

My life can seem so insular compared to theirs, so tucked away from powerful, guiding life forces. Tucked here inside, sheltered from the cold breeze and fog, I often feel left to my own isolated resources to figure it all out.

But am I, really? Or is the energy of the earth guiding me, just as it is them? Maybe all I need to do is stick my head out of the water, and like the sea lions, watch, feel and listen, and move.