Odyssey

Life isn't measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away. Is it possible to experience such a poignant moment that you lose your breath and never get it back?

I went to the beach this weekend. First it sprinkled, then it rained, and then the sun broke out and brought blue skies with it. Then it hailed. Then the sun came out again. Then it got dark. In other words, a typical weather pattern for Seattle and the surrounding areas. Kind of like the Mariners. Consistently inconsistent.

Which means, of course, that you have to like Seattle (and the Mariners), for something other than perfection.

I grew up in southern California and I remember going to Disneyland once on a cloudy day and we were worried that it might rain, so we turned around and went home. Wouldn't that just suck? To go to Disneyland in the rain? There is just no way you can enjoy Tom Sawyer Island if it is overcast. How could life get any worse?

In Seattle, we dart inside only when the raindrops are the size of golfballs. And, in the end, we get to see and experience some amazing things because we don't hide from the crappy weather. In fact, that very weather paints a picture vastly different than the one painted the day or week or year before. Past and present - they are different and one is infinitely more preferable to the other.

If you go to the beach, and it's sunny, strip down and let the rays soak into your skin. Store the heat deep, take it home, draw it to the surface when next you are freezing cold. Like a solar panel on the roof of a house in Enatai.

If you go to the beach and it's raining, then what's the point in running from the waves anyway? You are already wet and there is something magnificent about the waves crashing with fury then wrapping themselves gently around your ankles, knees, waist. The ocean knows how to love and how to drown. Pick your poison.

Is it possible to experience such a poignant moment that you lose your breath and never get it back? Probably not, but it is possible to want that moment to remain so badly that you forget to breath again.

We capture perfection in the past. We dream in the future. We live in the present regardless of inclement weather.