The Brink

If you are ever in a ship South of Austrailia, you can see the band of weather that surrounds Antarctica, the storms that essentially tell you 'God does not want you there.'  It is a place where I saw seas that were so high that the furrows between swells could easily engulf the largest ships.  Where if you turned the wrong direction, you would capsize and probably be dead within minutes.

 

I have been on an aircraft in the China Sea, dodging typhoons, and in that sunny calm space between, the waterspouts are too numerous to count but are beautiful nevertheless.

 

St. Elmos' Fire other than being that movie in the 80's, is a mesmerizing dance of electricity on the skin of an aircraft.

 

The water in the middle of the ocean is such a deep blue that it is really hard to believe.

 

If you are lucky enough to see a rainbow while flying, if the circumstances are right you will see that it is not an arch at all.  Instead, it is a ring.

 

Before a tornado, the sky can turn an eerie green.

 

In the Southern Hemisphere, if you can get away from city lights, the sky is so full of stars that it can leave you silent.

 

Those are snapshots that I will have with me always.  That is what life is, I think. It is a juxtaposition of beauty and risk, of spectacular experiences teetering on the brink of destruction.  It is balancing on that edge as best as you can.

 

Isn't it worth it?