sunrise August 24th…

Sunday, I kayaked at sunrise for the first time. I’ve never witnessed this beauty from the water. Every direction I turned, the light shifted in awe-inspiring ways.

Cape Cod Bay, Sunday, August 24th, 2025, Sandwich, Mass

After a week of wild waves and wind from Hurricane Erin, the waters finally settled down. Cape Cod Bay felt expansive to me, just like the prairie I was raised roaming in South Dakota.

I could faintly hear fishermen talking across the still water.

The birds were busy. Hurricane Erin brought a lot of baitfish to the bay. The seals would pop up, see me, then dive down. They seemed playful and happy to have some calm waters.

This summer, I started singing Simon and Garfunkel’s Cecilia (Ce-SEAL-ya) to the seals in the morning. In my imagination, they are drawn to and comforted by my singing…Cecilia, you’re breakin’ my heart, you’re shaking my confidence daily.

I guess the day after this experience, I don’t want to put off what I’m longing to do.

“It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are still alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them.”George Eliot

certainty is…

the great enemy of unity.

This quote is from the uniquely well-timed 2024 film “CONCLAVE” about the selection of a new Pope. It’s haunted me ever since. Here is the entire quote and the clip from the film.

“My brothers and sisters...let me tell you that the one sin I have come to fear more than any other is certainty. Certainty is the great enemy of unity..our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt. If there was only certainty, and if there was no doubt, there would be no mystery, and therefore no need for faith.”
―Robert Harris, Conclave

CERTAIN: known for sure; established beyond doubt

 ENEMY: something harmful or deadly 

UNITY: a condition of harmony

A tidy package of CERTAINTY is rarely going to arrive on my doorstep.

How can I learn to manage my emotional distress when certainty isn’t possible?

• Don't believe everything I think, it's just a thought (NOT a fact).
• Acknowledge my feelings without judgment (or try to anyway).
• Accept that I may never have certainty on this topic.

• Remind myself of the rest of the quote: "...our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt.  If there was only certainty, and if there was no doubt, there would be no mystery, and therefore no need for faith."

Sunrise on Town Neck Beach—Sandwich, Massachusetts—July 3rd, 2025