Lessons from the Sea

I thought of the lessons [the sea] had taught us as children. A certain amount of patience (you can’t hurry the tides). A great deal of respect (the sea does not suffer fools gladly). An awareness of the vast and mysterious interdependence of things (wind, and tide and current, calm and squall and hurricane, all combining to determine the paths of the birds above and the fish below). And the cleanness of it all, with every beach swept twice a day by the great broom of the sea.

– Arthur Gordon, A Touch of Wonder