Rough Seas

Why are waves white?  

"To explain the phenomenon, let us recall that sunlight is white (the sun emits visible light of all colours, which combine to give white light).

Foam consists of bubbles, which are very thin liquid films with air inside. Compared with a water droplet of the same size, a bubble absorbs much less light than the water droplet because it has so little matter. And the air inside the bubble is not a good absorber of light either. Hence, all things being equal, the light coming out from a bubble is brighter than that from water (which is just a large collection of water droplets), and appears white under the sun."

Source:  http://www.weather.gov.hk/education/edu06nature/ele_beach1_e.htm

Light appears with lightness.  Lightness of one's life, lightness of the self. The soul.

The other evening I happened to walk into an area where a few people were chatting.  A not-so-familiar face glazed me over.

"Hi, there, have we met before? I said.


"Yes, the other day when I was getting ready to run."

Ahh, this is the woman. I didn't remember the face so much.  I remembered her energy.   She was angry, like life had not been all she had hoped. Within minutes, her face gnarled as her skin tightened.  Her neck veins bulged. She injured her body kickboxing earlier.  She said she was so angry.  She was glad her son's fiance wasn't nearby, for it would have been her face.

The woman never greeted me in the few times we passed one another.  Her son's fiance wasn't to her liking. She said the young woman was too controlling. And angry. A resemblance appeared immediately.  I listened.  Mostly.

The next hour she spoke about how she didn't need anyone, that men just want a Barbie. She was more than hard.

She was like the rough sea.  Edgy.  On guard.  Thrashing.

I wondered if the sea worked out its frustration as the light permeates the foam. Masuru Emoto wrote about water droplets.  How they hold the energy of the universe, the energy of individuals. That they change dependent upon one's energy.  Soft and positive produce pristene, beautiful images.  Hard and angry produce distortion, macabre images.

When a neighbor mentioned her at coffee this morning admiring how much this woman knew, I couldn't help feel sad.  What good is knowledge about the external, when the internal is suffering so?

So close to nature, so far from oneself.  A lesson for all of us. The lightness is there for the taking ...when we have suffered enough.