Set Sails, Full Speed Ahead
This week we move from January into February, the shortest month of the year by one or two days depending on which month you are comparing it to, but it can seem to – just – drag – on.
It’s the month when most people lose the motivation to continue to work toward the goals and resolutions. We are tired of winter. It’s like our vessel is tied to the dock and we aren’t going anywhere, nor do we care to go.
When I lived in Northern Illinois, it was the month that never ended. Winter had lost its fascination by this time and I was ready, more than ready, for the winter snow and cold to disappear. I was ready for the grass to turn green, ready for the leaves to appear on the trees, and ready for the wide variety of colorful flowers.
Now that I live in Middle Tennessee, I enjoy the weather roller coaster: some days the sun is out and the temperatures hit at least the mid-50s – then, two days later the sky is overcast, the rain is falling, and the temperature tops out at 35 degrees.
It’s on these days that I still want to draw in my sails and hibernate by the fire, but that finds me just adrift in the sea of life. On those days, I do nothing productive and then regret my lack of motivation.
What I am learning how to do is keep the sails up and search for any breeze. It might not be blowing in the direction I wish to be headed, but I am learning how to move my sails to catch the breeze so that I don’t falter.
We need to learn to sail our vessel forward even on those difficult days, during the storms that erupt in our lives, so that we have no regrets.
Maybe Garth Brooks says it best in his song, The River.
Try looking at it this way. The ship is you, and life is the wind. Life comes at you from every direction – in both positive and negative degrees, but no matter how often life tries to blow us off course, we need to realize that it is how we react and how we adjust the sails of our ship that keeps us on course or gets us back on course.
Remember, you can’t control the actions of others (Life), but you can control your reactions (Your Ship). How will you control your ship this week? How will you adjust your sails to make it through the day, or the week?
Thanks for reading.
AND
