Sailing through the stormy waves of life is never easy but we can, by living through honesty and integrity, navigate through the uncharted waters and guide our life journey to where we can stand at the edge of the world and grab hold of our own star.

Boats On The Dock

One of the most beautiful sights in the world,  and one that always leaves me awestruck, is that of an ocean. I  love the feeling of a sandy beach beneath my feet, the smell of the salt air, the sounds of the waves coming into the shore and the unbelievable force, power, magnitude and expanse of the ocean. It’s low and high tides offer very different views of the waterfront. At low tide, moored boats are tossed on the low waters, hitting up against the poles of the docks, moving ever so close to the nearby and potentially dangerous rocks . At high tide, the moored boats gently rock back and forth in the high waters, nestling close to the docks, far above the potentially dangerous rocks submerged below.

Sitting on the beach, watching the magnificent sunrise over Surfers Paradise/Coolangata, Australia, while on vacation there several years ago, I had the silent, early morning hours to reflect on life and came to the realization that the tides and boats could be a dynamic metaphor for life. I have remembered those mornings often and thought about what we as individuals need to stay buoyant and keep ourselves protected from the dangerous and harmful ‘rocks’ of life. 

There are those we meet along our life journey who live their lives at low tide. They do not live with integrity, do not always live in the truth. They assume a perspective of entitlement or ingratitude, making choices and decisions as a reaction to their fear, leaving much to blind chance.

Through the bending and often bumpy trails of my journey, in order to avoid feeling isolated, alone, sad or angry at events that have negatively impacted my life, I have learned that we need to experience high tide in order to navigate safely through life, avoiding many of the pitfalls and dangers present at low tide. This means that we need to fill our reservoir to be more buoyant. We need to protect our emotional health, our physical well-being, our state of mind and our spiritual growth. And most of all, we need to create a space for love. These are needs that must be honored.

Creating high tide in our lives is not easy as it requires looking at where we are and taking responsibility for it. It also means looking at where we need to be so that we can be our best and thereby offer our best to others. It is really about protecting our ‘selves‘ so that we can live and love authentically.

For me, the journey - the sail on the waters of the ocean - has and does require that I build and deepen my communities, and either heal or accept and forgive broken family ties. It requires taking care of my physical self, getting enough sleep, allowing myself to enjoy life, having a healthy outlet for stress, being honest and living with integrity.

I believe that it is a combination of all these things that will allow me to keep the boats on my dock from sinking and give me the capacity to sail smoothly and keep me ready for grabbing onto, experiencing and enjoying any opportunities and blessings that may come my way.