On A Safe Harbor

Who has not heard and enjoyed the stories of a safe harbor, a place where we can come in from the storm, find respite and feel secure for awhile? Probably we all have run across such tales and maybe experienced such a harbor. Do we know, however, that some harbors can be very active, heroic and life saving in themselves? There is a little known story told of boat owners who were a part of the 9/11 Boatlift the day the twin towers in New York City were attacked and brought down. Many of us do not know that hundreds of thousands of people in lower Manhattan were trapped on the island with no way to leave…except by boat. So the call went out from the Coast Guard for all boats that could do so to come to Manhattan Harbor to evacuate people who needed help. And they came…by the hundreds…Coast Guard vessels, pleasure boats, ferries, commercial boats, tug boats, big, small, constantly picking up people, taking them to safety and returning again for more. All the while no one really knew what was happening behind the billowing clouds of black smoke and ash; no one knew whether they were sailing into more attacks or not. Still they came and continued to come.

Water rescue

At the end of nine hours, 500,000 people had been safely transported to other harbors, a greater water rescue of people than ever done before or since, even more than at Dunkirk in WWII.

Taking in and sending out

This is a magnificent story of a great city’s harbor opening itself for the safety of people’s leaving it for other shores, different than the harbor that welcomes those who need calm waters, but it reminds us that harbors can both receive and send forth. If we think about this a little bit, we will reflect that all harbors do not involve physical geographies; all harbors do not involve the inflow and outflow of water. Some in their ways work with the coming and going of Universal Good, and this makes it possible for human beings to realize that they are themselves natural harbors of Good. Are we not always taking in and sending out energies in life? Some people come into our lives to be sheltered for awhile; they may need our love and support as they heal or simply grow up. Then they leave; they took from us, and they gave to us, and then moved on.

The beckon or the wave

I think it’s good to see ourselves as safe receivers and safe senders. We may know about the giving-receiving continuum that is characteristic of life, but we may not think about how natural this continuum is within us. Left to our own devices we tend to participate in the tides that come and go in the course of our days. There is no question that we have gifts to give, even if they are as simple as the hands that hold the one who weeps or the tiny push that helps a child move off on a new bicycle. The wisdom is in knowing what is needed…the beckon or the wave.