Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Wake Up!

New York tags on a dark red Saturn; obviously a tourist.  The car we followed up US1 through Jupiter and Tequesta  gave Louise and me cause to consider the incredible gift we enjoy.  While it would be easy to view the 26 mile daily commute to our offices in Stuart as the ultimate drudgery, today the 6:30am trip was filled with introspection. 

People from all over the world pay thousands of dollars for the opportunity to briefly experience the life we have enjoyed for more than 25 years.  While visitors look in awe at Jupiter Inlet from the Carlin White bridge, our minds are filled with thoughts about the next "hump night" picnic at DuBois Park, how great the fishing will be if the ocean lays down like that on the weekend, when we will next visit the memorial to Louise's son at Jupiter Lighthouse Park.

This is our home.  We live here year 'round.  We rarely stray outside of the boundaries of our state and then only for the briefest period of time.  The morning fog laying low in the undulations of Jonathan Dickinson State Park; the occasional deer; an early morning fisherman, fly rod in hand, trudging down the path to the water's edge; the daily check to see if the gates on Burt Reynolds' driveway are open; the instant when the sun pops its sleepy head above the ocean horizon.  These are the daily rituals of our lives.

Last week during lobster mini-season (a local phenomena), a 60 year-old man came up from his second dive.  Back on the boat, exhibiting signs of a coronary, he was immediately treated by a medic as the captain rushed to the marina and called for emergency assistance on the radio.  The man's last words:  "The only thing to make it better would be if I had brought up some lobster."  What a truly remarkable expression of complete joy!

May we never lose sight of the beauty that surrounds us.  May our lives never get cluttered to the point that we fail to recognize the gift that has been bestowed upon us.  May the magnificence of nature constantly fill our lives with joy and wonderment.  May our world be a constant source of energy and enlightenment as we go about our daily lives.