SURFACE TENSIONS

© 2009 Howard McQueen

It is a completely still, peaceful, sunny day.
Great big silver clouds billow overhead.
We are out, sitting on the end of a dock, gazing into a big, placid lake.

Water bugs are gliding along,
like little silent airboats.
There legs do not puncture the surface.
There are two teams of these creatures,
seemingly engaged in a contest to move their team’s puck-like
object past some invisible finish line under the dock.
There is play going on everywhere in nature.
Beautiful airbrushed green pollen is collecting along the surface.
Leaves float by and nearby, ducks float as they preen.
Geese take off and land, beating their wings mightily.

Were this the totality of our experience base,
We would have no inkling that water is
also yielding, silently also inviting;
that we as land-dwellers, were once
and occasionally choose to be -
pseudo amphibians,
completely immersing ourselves,
allowing water to engulf, surround us, flow into our cracks and crevices, even flow on to the surface membranes of our so very vulnerable eyes.

The same lake, but we remember it naught,
Now in the pitch black darkness of night.
A friend holds our hand,
they somehow know how to guide us
out to the end of the dock.
No moon or star light.
We would be hard-pressed to take the plunge into this abyss,
Even with encouragement.
Perhaps if our friend went first
and they lit a lantern,
then we might summon the courage to go in,
but only after them.

The lake remains the same.
In a storm, its surface yields,
ripples and white caps form.
It allows and embraces the external forces
and returns,
inevitably,
to its natural repose.

If you are observing and engaging life primary through the appearance of the surface conditions, remember that these are the prevailing surface tensions and often stormy conditions, that are not prevalent in the depths and dimensions below. There is so much else to discover and explore as we dive deep, into the infinitely deep wellspring that feeds the lake.

howard@mcq.com