THE SET OF OUR SOUL

"The Winds of Fate" - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

One ship drives east and another drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow.
'Tis the set of the sails,
And not the gales,
That tell us the way to go.
Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate;
As we voyage along through life,
'Tis the set of a soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

My Grace sent me this poem on a note recently (we're bringing back the art of letter writing, old-school style, with stamps and everything).

I journaled today that sometimes I feel like a ship set sail on November 15th. And I had a choice: run along side on the dock and leap onboard as it set out to sea, off to adventure and storms and waves and the winds...or stay safely on the dock, and watch it drift away out of sight. Blow kisses and wave.

My choice is not deserving of accolades, because there is no right or wrong. I understand the magnitude of both. There are many, many important things on the shore, many priorities to be weighed and scaled. But there are many evenings that I lie down and review the day in my head and think...

"Am I crazy? Because THIS? ALL THIS? This is CRAZY."

And the result is that deep down I realize I jumped onboard long before November 15th.