Elusive things and Infinity

I’m back! After several months of my brain rolling around at about 50% past capacity, turning it off for a week was a much-needed, long overdue occasion. 

While I was gone, I had the opportunity to stand on a balcony and gaze over the ever-moving, ever-changing ocean. I’ve always wanted to see a whale in the wild. Always. In my small mind, I keep thinking that one of these days I’m going to be in the right place at the right time and an enormous whale is going to pop up and show itself to me, posing while I snap postcard-quality pictures with my conveniently present camera. I’ve held onto this hope for years, and though I’ve crossed the ocean a number of times (and been near it, on it, close to it, etc.) I still haven’t been in that perfect place and time. Yet.

I’ve seen dolphins, sea turtles, flying fish, and crabs. Pelicans, cranes, and a bazillion other cool birds. I’ve seen alligators, too. But no whale.

It’s like this elusive thing that I just can’t reach.

But as I watched the water stretch out in all directions, broken by nothing but the horizon, I realized something. The ocean is freaking VAST. It’s infinite. There are places where it’s so deep it can’t even be measured. And no matter how many whales live in it, the chances of me being in the right spot to see one are slim. There is just so much space and one single whale is such a small thing comparatively. I mean, yes, I understand that there are known places to go whale-watching. But even then there’s no guarantee. It’s still about timing. And that timing isn’t just up to me.

But I know that if I keep looking, one day I’ll get to see my whale. And if I don’t, at least I’ll know I never gave up trying.

I think that’s true with a lot of our life goals. The world is vast. In many ways it’s infinite. Dreams are sometimes elusive things that feel out of reach. But we will never know how infinite we are until we unfurl our sails and make for the horizon.  

Maybe we’ll find a whale, and maybe we won’t. Maybe we’ll find something else entirely. Like, I don’t know, a new continent that will be lauded as the promised land and named after us. The point is we have opportunities and choices and chances. Enough to fill an entire ocean. It’s up to us to decide if we have the courage to sail.

What is something you’ve always wanted to see/do/try?