Today is orthodox Easter, and for many Christians around the world, and for me, it is a celebration of life. A time that I embrace the beauty of the vastness of the higher power that created this universe, our small part in it, and the fragile nature of the world we inhabit.  I am truly grateful to be alive and know that I am alive.  I feel the energy of my soul, my being, at times in direct communication with that vastness, as if it flows through me, around me, in concert with all that is.  It gives me comfort, peace, and sense of grace.  Although my beliefs have always been centered in Christian ideology, it was not until I had lost all hope for living through an addiction about a decade ago, where I had reached an abyss so lonely, that few whom have experienced that living hell have survived, let alone live on to have a spiritual awakening yet follow.  I was fortunate.  I found a community of similar souls searching for an answer to a better existence, a formula for living that embodies honesty, compassion, courage, openness, and the necessity for helping others.  I practice the principles of that philosophy as a matter of daily living, and I live one -day-at-a-time.  Focused on the present.  Easter preaches for me to focus on the present, and live for the future, with hope in the knowledge that my life will always be.  I, as an entity, may not recognize what this life is, or was, but the energy that embodies my soul, my being, my communication with my higher power lives, forever.  Consistent with the First Law of Thermodynamics, initally conceived by Julius von Mayer and a short time later further formulated by Hermann von Helmholtz, energy cannot be created nor destroyed.  But it can be transformed.  So, since I as a being with finite energy, will live forever, my energy being will live on, likely in a transformed state. But as what?  Now that is the question that has burned in the mind of personhood since sentience evolved.  I do not know, but it does not matter that I do not know, nor can know as a mere human.  What matters is that I accept it.  I have been asked a number of times, as a scientist, how can you believe in these things that you cannot measure or observe.  Ahh.  Good question.  The answer lies in we simply do not have the means of measuring that energy, yet.  We, as yet, also cannot measure gravity as an energy force either.  We can however, measure the effect of gravity.  We can use gravity as a constant and mathematically describe the force it exerts.  In today’s scientific world, no one questions the existence of gravity, yet there it is, a known force we cannot directly measure, manipulate, or explain. 

So, is my energy of being a force?  Perhaps.  For the sake of argument, let’s state my energy stems from another force, the force we call love.  Yes, love could be a force.  A physical force.  One that is not understood, nor measurable yet, but the effects of that force can be observed.  If one has the capacity to be honest, and is not blinded by contempt prior to investigation, it becomes possible to embrace the concept of love as a force.  Many have described the effect that love has had on another’s life, or on one’s own life.  Love could be the principle force that empowers universal life.  A force that is as powerful, if not more so, than gravity and exerts its effects on all things.  Everywhere, throughout the universe.  My small energy, as the love I have defined as the soul of David, in this vastness of energy that is our existence, will never die.  That was the message of Easter for me.

Accepting this belief, does not rule out any other ideology or governing conceptions of life.  In fact, I would argue, it allows one to accept any other person’s ideas of existence that are also formulated in the principles of love. It is simple, consistent, all inclusive, and provides a message of hope.  We live, will die, and will live again in an existence formulated through the energy of love.  The more I am open to love, the more I practice love, the more I give love, the closer I become to understanding the person that is me, David.  This too, I believe, was the message of Easter.

Now what does any of this have to do with a sailing blog?  In short, I would not have the opportunities, nor the capacity, nor the honesty, to start on a global sailing adventure had I not experienced the spiritual awakening that occurred in my life about a decade ago.  Yes, I had always dreamed since a little boy of sailing the world, and sailing has been my passion since my father taught me the ropes, literally.  I never understood exactly why until recently.  I was even a little embarrassed by it, as if sailing the world was just a dream, never one I would actually pursue.  However, now I am performing on a vision set forth by my new understanding of self, my calling by my higher power to grow and share my love.  I now have the emotional, intellectual, and physical means to build on the gifts I have been given, by so many in my life, and through the teachings of Easter, to sail the world.  To learn of the love that exists between peoples, within individuals, within all of Earth’s nature, and our universe beyond.  It’s a big world, and the little understanding which I can gain and pass on through my adventures at sea, will be, I hope, an enduring signature to the love energy I am so grateful to have been given.

Happy Easter