Although I’ve worked on a boat for years and done quite a bit of “inland” sailing in New York State, I’d never been out sailing in the ocean. So I signed on as crew for a couple of “deliveries” in the Caribbean. Well, I knew from inland sailing that I don’t really enjoy boat life all that much anymore, but I wanted to see what it was like “out there”. To keep the story short, I’ll say that they were pleasant trips, but in the end two things made it all really worthwhile. After all, there is always something worthwhile. Seeing the dolphins playing along the bow. It being a sleek 51’ sailboat, the deck was not far above the water, and I felt I could reach out and touch them if I so desired. But the magical part of it was the curious way the sunlight pierced the blue water and turned the dolphins a shimmering gold. I remembered at that moment what Thich Nhat Hanh, the well-known Vietnamese Buddhist monk reminds us to do – “touch deeply”. A couple of nights later, while on watch alone in the middle of the night, I saw the biggest, brightest, longest shooting star I’d ever seen. Touch deeply, I thought. The next day, I realized that we can also touch deeply anytime, anywhere, in our everyday lives. That is the point, isn’t it?
the Buddha speaks
touch deeply, says he
touch deeply
all I saw was the ocean and sky
so I touched the clouds
(deeply)
and found myself there