Pray constantly.  We often disregard this advice and often we live . . . as if we do not need prayer, as if we can survive life and its dark times, totally independently from something bigger than ourselves.

One thing that I notice every day while I work with the men and women working at sea, it is that they understand something of being dependent. They seem to know that there is something larger than themselves and the world they live in. In the words of Uys Krige, well-known poet, I want to ask ‘Do you, Sir, know the sea?’

The blue water never allows you to forget, or be untouched by its majestic vastness. There cannot be a hellish storm without your soul seeking something larger than the power of the angry waters. Perhaps Uys Krige, in his poem, touched on knowing the sea, like no one else. It seems that no one, not even in a thousand letters, managed to touch upon this wonder. He explains something of the fear, of the chance that the sea could swallow you quietly. I just wonder, are our lives as land-dwellers so different? I think we may also be floating on the oceans of life and perhaps we feel that we do not need prayer as much . . .

Yet, people that have experienced the storms, people that have been swept off boats, know that they need constant prayer. Without prayer, the boat or ship will hardly stay afloat.