The Roaring of the Sea

(Source)

For those who have never been to sea, they have no idea just how vast it is. For those who have never been to sea in a storm, they have no idea just how powerful it is. While I have not spent a lot of time at sea, I have spent enough to understand just how vast and powerful is the sea.

Thy sea, O God, so great,

My boat so small.

It cannot be that any happy fate

Will me befall

Save as Thy goodness opens paths for me

Through the consuming vastness of the sea.

Thy winds, O God, so strong,

So slight my sail.

How could I curb and bit them on the long

And saltry trail,

Unless Thy love were mightier than the wrath

Of all the tempests that beset my path?

Thy world, O God, so fierce,

And I so frail.

Yet, though its arrows threaten oft to pierce

My fragile mail,

Cities of refuge rise where dangers cease,

Sweet silences abound, and all is peace.

- Winfred Ernest Garrison

Back in olden times, there were areas of the great deep which were unknown and uncharted, there were thought to be dragons dwelling in those deeps. No dragons were needed to make the sea dangerous. The winds and the tides were dangerous enough.

The sea, mysterious and terrifying at times. But still we are drawn to it, its rhythms, its seasons, even its furies. For the sea is in our blood. We evolved there, as all life did.

But still, when I am upon the waters of the deep, I look to the ever receding horizon and say, "Thy sea, O God, so great, My boat so small."

For those who travel upon the sea in our Nation's service.