The Wind and The Tides

The Challenge of Navigating Life

Your life is like a big, bulky ship at sea. It is always moving. It is always going somewhere. Sometimes it is going where you want it to go. Other times, it strays off course, towards somewhere unknown.

Are we in control?

To some extent yes. To some extent no.

You have the ability to control the sails. But the sails depend on the wind and the tides. You have the ability to turn the rudder. But the rudder depends on the wind and the tides. If you aren’t paying attention, you will almost certainly end up somewhere that you do not want to be, or that you did not choose.

Changing course is difficult. Changing who we are is difficult. A large ship is hard to turn, and once it is turned it is hard to turn back. It takes time and commitment.

Ending up where you want to go requires knowledge. If you are going to turn your ship, it had better be in the right direction. Without knowledge, we can go places, we can see things, but we are not in control of where we end up. Without knowledge, we are the plaything of the winds and the tides.

The harsh truth is that even with knowledge, we aren’t always in control of where we end up. A storm can destroy your sails, damage your rudder.

Accepting this truth is necessary in order to properly understand the nature of human life. We must focus on what we can control while also accepting the course of nature, adjusting things along the way as best we can.

Making the most of what we can control requires having a plan, a destination, and knowing what is truly good and worth aiming at. This is no guarantee that you will get there, but it is the best way to avoid being pushed around to places you never wanted to go.