My sailboat taught me quite a bit about navigating life. As a boy I rode my bike several miles to the Charlotte pier and watched the sailboats make their way out of the Genesee river channel and sail off over the horizon on Lake Ontario. I wished I could be on one of them.
Some years ago a coworker told me he was taking sailing lessons at the Buffalo harbor. Intrigued, I signed up too, read everything I could find about sailing and eventually found myself owner of a twenty-two foot Catalina.
I knew that the wind would try to take along with it everything in its path. Leaves, papers and dandelion umbrellas all dutifully floated along on the prevailing wind.
People strain with all their might to make headway against the wind’s bluster. At times, birds flap furiously only to hold their position in the airstream. Snow and rain sometimes travel sideways in the gusts.
Sitting down for my first sailing lesson, I thought sailing downwind would involve no effort and sailing upwind would be nearly impossible. Then I learned about the keel. Without it, a sailboat would make no headway against the wind and the breeze would sweep it along with everything else in its current.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that a keel allows a boat to sail at an angle into the wind although not directly into it. Not only that, a sailboat maintains better stability sailing against the wind than with it.
So what has my sailing experience taught me about navigating life? My first lesson was that there are times in life when I can leave everything else behind and be one with nature. Just me and the wind whistling in the sails. I learned to appreciate the peaceful moments in life.
Sailing has taught me how to deal with the adversity. I remember once venturing out into Lake Ontario among four foot waves. I managed only to round the break wall and head back into the channel clinging to the gunwales for dear life. Life is like that too. I need to plan the right time for a quest.
I learned to notice life currents and what direction they wanted to take me. If I wanted to take a different tack, I had to figure out how to do it. I always found myself steadier for having devised and followed a plan, even though I might need the patience to travel by an indirect route.
Most of all I learned that life is an adventure. Sometimes it might seem safer to just sit at home. Setting sail for a life voyage might be unpredictable, dangerous or uncomfortable. Whatever happens, I always finish each journey having learned something important about life and about me.
Life Lab Lessons
- Do you tend to choose adventure or safety?
- How much risk are you willing to take in life?
- What do you learn from doing nothing?
- Try stretching yourself a little today in a new adventure.
- When you are finished, see what you have learned.
Joseph G. Langen is the author of Commonsense Wisdom for Everyday Life, Young Man of the Cloth, The Pastor’s Inferno and Navigating Life: Commonsense Reflections for the Journey
Sliding Otter Publications
WEB: http://www.slidingotter.com
BLOG: http://www.commonsense-wisdom.blogspot.com
Email: jlangen@slidingotter.com
Mary Chapin Carpenter w/ Vince Gill and Kathy Mattea – Wall ‘Round Your Heart (live)
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