2.15.2016 :: MORICHES BAY

The sun moved across the bay this morning melting the ice that formed on the surface.  From left to right, it was as if a brush was painting the landscape, turning blue to pink, solid ice to liquid and a cloudy sky to clear.  By 7:30, you could see the current ripple up again, pushing the remaining ice chunks towards the inlet. 

I've been met with so many encouraging words about these photos.  What I know is that it's not about the photography or even the dazzle of color the sunrises bring.  It's about the primal instinct we all have to feel connected to the natural world.  There's nothing more affirming then to wake up with the rising sun and feel completely in sync with life outside--because we are the life outside.  It is us.  Whatever that is and for whatever reason it exists, is the same reason we exist too.  In spite of all the technology, concrete, metal and machinery, we haven't escaped our true nature.  It's still awakens in each of us a sense of awe, reverence, connection and hope.  

On mornings like these, I think about the residents of Flint.   I think about the people north of Los Angeles living under a noxious, billowing plume of methane. I think about our neighbors in Pennsylvania whose water has been poisoned by the natural gas industry.  Then I think about how Moriches Bay and all of the bodies of water around Long Island have changed in the six short years I've lived in this house; the increase in algal blooms and fish kills, in dead whales and garbage.  You can work yourself into a tailspin over why, but when I do, it always comes back to money--money and an unwillingness to change.

Whatever your political affiliations may be, your religious beliefs or personal convictions, you've found yourself reading this because you were moved by the pictures above.  Ask yourself why and consider for a moment why it matters to you.  Write it down, share it with someone next to you, or in the comments section below.  Maybe it's one word, maybe it's a few; but whatever it is, acknowledge it and maybe from there, we can start to move towards a more conscious and connected union.