Have you heard of Florence Chadwick? She was the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways and beat the men's record for swimming the channel in the mid-1900's. She decided she wanted to also swim from Catalina Island to the coast of CA - approximately 20 + miles.
The day Florence started her swim was cold. There were two boats on either side of her making sure to protect her from sharks and other ocean life as she swam. As she started her journey a fog rolled in; it completed obscured the view of the coast line and was so heavy she could barely make out the boats on either side of her. I imagine it felt like she was swimming in place - just standing still and not making any kind of real progress.
After swimming for over 15 hours Florence said she wanted to stop. Flo's mother was in one of the boats and talked her into continuing. After more time passed, she was finally so physically and emotionally exhausted she stopped swimming and they pulled her into the boat. Florence found out she was 1/2 a mile from shore when she gave up.
I was thinking this was a great story until I experienced some fog myself this morning as I was driving down the canyon to work - now it is an amazing story. The fog came on gradually, but eventually got so thick I could barely see the lines in the road and the taillights in front of me. The road I drive daily and know quite well suddenly seemed to hold unfamiliar curves. Luckily there were no issues on the road and the other drivers were slowing down and using caution, but it created a more realistic impression of this story for me. I cannot imagine what it would feel like to be lost in that cloud for hours and hours.
The same can be true for our lives - spiritual and physical. My boss is always talking about clarity; clarity in purpose, clarity in intention, clarity in action; if we don't have this we lose sight of our goals. The more I look at my life, the more I realize I am leaving things to chance - I am a crisis manager, just putting out fires as I go wondering around in the fog. The more clarity and perspective I gain the more I realize I don't need to leave anything to chance.
I believe I have talked about writing down what your life looks like in 1 year, then 5 years, then 10 years - haven't I? My boss has talked about it before and I keep thinking it is a good idea, but then I get busy or start reading or blogging and I don't do it. This week he suggested we write our projection of the next 10 years in three categories - Health, Relationships (spiritual and physical/earthly) and money/career. I have started on year 1 and it is incredibly surprising how many holes there are in my mind of what I expect from my life. How can I expect to experience everything I want to experience when I am just stumbling around in the fog waiting for things to happen to me. Without a clear pathway lined out, it doesn't seem like even a possibility things will happen like I want them to.
In Florence Chadwick's case - she did go back and eventually swim the distance between Catalina Island and the Coast of CA, but the 2nd time she was mentally prepared for the possibility of fog and had set up a strategy to get through it...I'm working on it.
I Am Grateful,
HB
Diva Quote: "When the world says, 'Give up,' Hope whispers, 'Try it one more time.'" --Author Unknown
I do love this story, I hear Dieter F. Uchdorfs voice telling it, I have listened to his talk a few times about Ms. Chadwick. I love all that we can learn from her experience. All that you mentioned. I think we can imagine more than you think about being lost in a cloud of fog for hours and hours....if not days, weeks, months and years. This worldly fog is so thick. Sometimes we can't even tell we are off course at all. We have lost sight of our beacon and don't realize it.
ReplyDeleteI really like your ideas about clarity. Each time I try and picture our life, my life in 1, 5 or 10 years.....I can't figure it out, certain aspects are solid and in place, but I can never figure out where we will be. It is still foggy.....would love to clear that view.