Sailors Take Warning.
I found this post by accident – one I apparently never posted, but wrote some time ago. It reminds me that I haven’t changed much.
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I woke up and wandered downstairs to make breakfast, pulling open the drapes as the sun rose. Outside was a glorious sunrise, layered with only two colors: white and a deep pink, so dark it was red.
Immediately, and against my will, I thought of an old saying about the weather: “Red skies at night, sailors delight. Red skies at morning, sailors take warning.” This age-old saying refers to sailors looking at the skies to determine whether or not the seas will be rough.
I have no idea if the saying has any merit. After a brief check on the web, I determined that I don’t care enough about it to study atmospheric changes.
Naively or not, when I see the red in the sky, like I did on this day, I believe that bad weather is coming. Maybe we’re destined to be attacked by a blizzard or a thunderstorm, hail or a hurricane. Whatever it is, it’s just weather – and deep down, I know this.
But this happened on a day when Dylan was going on a ski trip with the school. It happened as both kids were headed off into the wild blue yonder, and I had nothing to do at home.
So, upon seeing the red in the skies, I went into full-blown panic. Since it was so early, I hadn’t taken my vitamins yet – meaning that my amino acids were all out of whack. And I know this. I know not to worry.
But I worried. I worried all day. And I don’t mean, I worried that the kids might get a cold. Since I had nothing to do with my day, I went all-out.
I worried that Dylan was going to die in a skiing accident. I worried that there would be a school shooting. I worried that Shane’s bus would crash on the way home. I worried that he would get run over on his way home from the bus stop. I considered picking him up at the bus stop (which is 200 yards from our house) but I worried that we’d both be killed in a crash on our way back to the house.
In other words, I wasted my entire day worrying.
Even the weather was non-committal. Not only were there no tornadoes, but it didn’t even rain.
Perhaps, I think now, it was just a pretty sunrise.