24Jun Day of the Seafarer - 25 June 2021

Let us consider where we should possess our home,
and then think about how we may come there again—
and then we should strive also
so that we may be allowed to do so,
into those eternal beatitudes

From the poem "The Seafarer", by Dr. Aaron K. Hostetter

The sea has beckoned and entranced for eons, and it's been a powerful, inevitable presence in poetry from its ancient beginnings, in Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" to the present day. It's a character, a god, a setting for exploration and war, an image touching all the human senses, a metaphor for the unseen world beyond senses.

Sea stories are often allegorical, filled with fantastic mythical beings and carrying pointed moral statements. Sea poems, too, often tend toward allegory and are naturally suited to elegy, as concerned with the metaphorical passage from this world to the next as with any actual voyage across the Earth's oceans.

In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are all the aspects of existence. Your reason and your passion are the rudders... and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either is broken, you can toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.

You are a landmark yourself... A proud Seafarer!

Our Greetings to you and safe trips!