As the sun found its way up from wherever it had spent the
night, the sky lightened from a dark grey
and made the world around me a little brighter. For the first time, I noticed seagulls standing like sentinels up and down the beach on either side of me,
keeping their distance as they will from humans. More lights transited the horizon now and I could see the birds’
heads following them. Like me, they
seemed to find the apparitions of interest.
Unlike me, they simply accepted them and didn’t wonder about their
origin.
I supposed the
lights could have been ghosts, demons or extra-terrestrials, but I didn’t think so. Neither did the birds. The gulls have stood there each morning for eons
waiting for a morsel from the immeasurable abundance of the sea.
A few goblins would never scare
them away.
I was the only
one standing on the beach that morning who could be frightened by my thoughts. I alone could conjure ghosts from my past or present
or fearsome goblins from the future.
But not the
birds. Theirs was a future they could not comprehend and a past they
could not remember. The unknown lights
out on the sea did not disturb their sense of the present. To them the present is reality. To me it could be a gift.
Taking a lesson
from my companions, I opened my eyes and closed my mind and stood watching the
sun come up, a simple witness to the daily miracle. I felt the wind wash over me and buoy me up,
my burdens lifting as I came into the moment.
I never determined the genesis of the lights out on the sea. For me, they had served their purpose, and they
faded away in the presence of the new day.
copyright 2007 by David
Griffin
Windswept Press
Murrells Inlet, SC
www.windsweptpress.com
