Lessons from the ocean

Oceans are remarkable and continually astonishing to me. When you have a chance to be in the midst of one, perhaps on a small boat away from shore a few miles, you can't help but be overwhelmed by the vastness and immensity that surrounds you. There is "water, water everywhere" and you feel like such a tiny speck. It is estimated that 71% of the earth's surface is water, so there us a LOT of ocean on our planet!

The vastness is constant, but the ocean is a throbbing, moving entity. I have rarely seen a flat, still ocean; there seem to be constant waves and swells, tides that ebb and flow, surf and breakers, and currents flowing between continents. Sometimes the ocean is gentle and soothing in its quiet rocking; sometimes it rages in terrifying and threatening power.

I pondered two aspects of oceans today. First is perhaps expressed in a quote by Mahatma Gandhi: "Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." The ocean's immensity compensates for drops of pollution here and there, and fortunately, there is much good in humanity to compensate for the bad and evil. However, trends of ecological pollution can have profound impact, and so can evil and negative influences in humanity. There is no question that we must be on guard of our physical environment, and our social/spiritual one.

The second thought is the feeling that many of us may have had, that we feel insignificant and unimportant, like a single drop of water in a vast sea. Does one good deed or kind word really make a difference? Does a single individual matter? Mother Teresa, the exemplary sister of charity, once remarked, "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."

Unlike the drop of water that falls to the ocean and immediately loses its identity, encompassed in the vastness of the water, each and every person matters; every drop, every individual, is known to God, and we retain our identity even amid the mass of humanity. And humanity would truly be less for each missing drop.

I #GiveThanks for the knowledge that every individual drop of humanity is valuable and important!