Lost in the Fog

This morning at about 6AM, I made the usual "coffee mug in hand" trek to the pier. The fog was thick..so thick that it almost felt like a light rain was hitting my face as I walked down the board path. So thick that I could feel the heaviness of it pressing against my body. It is quite the eerie feeling to look out on the water when anything past twenty feet from you is totally blocked from view. I stared out over the marsh. I could barely make out an egret wading in the shallows and a cormorant diving for mullet. A lot of people would not have observed the sheer beauty of the scene..they would have only seen how the mist blocked out many of the objects that could normally be seen. The blankness of the Bay under the heavy coat of fog is how some approach life. Many will go through their entire life without ever seeing the beauty of what is given them. Not all are fortunate enough to awake to a peaceful Bayou scene, this is true but as I have stated before..your Paradise is where you make it. If you can find total peace wherever you are, then you have found your Paradise. It is not a place..instead, it is a state of mind. I used to so worry about my lot in life. I was not happy with where I was nor what I was doing. Then I realized that it was more that I was not happy because I was trying to be like everyone else. I was trying to "be" someone else. I was trying to be "liked" and to be this, I felt that I had to be a carbon copy of no one in particular but everyone in general..I had to be another face in the crowd. I just knew I could not be me. Then an earthshaking realization..I had to be ME! If no one liked me other than myself, it did not matter. I had to like me and I had to like me as me. The fog of my brain had been lifted and my Paradise was found. I became fully satisfied that happiness did not involve me "keeping up with the Joneses" but rather me coming back to Earth to be myself. Now, I am happy in my little corner of the world, doing my artwork and observing the peacefulness that has been granted to me. I may not have ended up exactly where I intended to be but, in truth, I am exactly where I am meant to be.

The egrets and cormorants that were surrounded by the fog this morning did not let their lot in life get them down. Face it..they live in a marsh and have to hunt for their meals. It is a fight for life every day. Regardless of this, they greet each morning with an exuberance such as none other. They know what and where they are supposed to be even if there is a heavy fog curtaining off the Bay. Birds are just somehow happy being themselves and do not try to "keep up with the Joneses"! Their view of life is so clear.