Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. Advice that I often fail to listen to. This morning was a bit of a rough one. I found myself coming into bed a little late after catching up on blogs and making a phone call back home. I planned to make out to the sunrise snorkel, but my body coupled with my lack of willpower didn't allow that to happen. I remember waking up to my alarm, speaking with my roommate Janna, sitting up then deciding, "Awe, screw it" and promptly passing out again. I awoke much better rested about an hour later but the howling winds still begged me to stay in bed. I enjoyed the sounds of the storm for a while before hauling myself out to go to breakfast. Something about hot tea and a warm breakfast makes taking on the world a little less difficult. After breakfast was a crash course in marine invertebrate evolution and classification before going out to a challenging lab. The point of the lab was to study the relationship between the abundance of invertebrates and distance from coral reef patches. In order to gather the data we had to walk out into the ocean, luckily we only had to go to about knee height water and then stab a 60 ml syringe into the sediment underwater along a transect line. The wind and the waves made the effort a bit crisp, but doable. After that adventure it was a couple grueling hours getting intimate with a microscope. Grueling may be too harsh of a word, but the searching through petri dishes of sand gave me flashbacks of a previous lab job that didn't suit me well. When we did find an invertebrate it was quite exciting. By the time it was over we were all having a bit of fun, jamming to Hailey's playlist and chasing arthropods across the dishes. The day ended with a wonderful meal and a blustery sunset. No matter how often I see it, the beauty of the ocean never ceases to amaze me. The way the light hits it just the right way making a black abyss, then slightly differently to reveal the incredible world that lies beneath its surface. Tonight I witnessed baby black tip reef sharks swimming around cowhead stingrays and even a school of eagle rays circling the jetty. These animals that call this place home. The ocean which for many lies out of sight and out of mind, is the keystone of this planet. So much of what makes life possible is hidden in her depths. This is where life began, where evolution first made its debut and where the most resilient species will survive. I'm so grateful to learn her ways and fall in love with the creatures she cares for. I think any rough day requires some reflection and positive thinking. Not all days will start or end well. Some will do neither, but those days are the ones that make us look a little deeper and pay attention to all the little moments that make life worth the slips and stumbles.
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About MeAn educated outdoor enthusiast with a passion for the planet and all its inhabitants, I wish to be a liaison between the scientific world and the public. I believe that knowledge and compassion are the keys to understanding and bettering our complex existence on this beautiful Earth. Archives |