I peeked out from under the tarp to see a gray whale breaching. It cut through the haze and spiraled upward, propelling its entire body through the air right next to the tiny rowboat. It was as big as a yellow school bus and crusted over with a thick layer of barnacles.
I was intensely nervous about its size. The only time I’d ever seen a whale was in an aquarium in a Florida resort. This one seemed much larger. And infinitely freer. It was the first time in my life I understood how scary and dangerous things that are free really are.
― Margot Berwin, Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire
Image by Brigitte Werner from Pixabay