Rambling about Twain's Sails

I keep Mark Twain's quote on my blog because it reminds me of how I want to live life. Fearlessly. Curiously. Expectantly. In order to "catch the trade winds in your sails," you do need to have the sails unfurled and ready to catch them in order to be pushed to new seas and around new shorelines. But when you are docked in a harbor, of necessity your sails must be lowered.

So where am I now? Hmmm, I suppose I am where I will always be: on the open seas, up the coastlines, and in harbors. I need all such places, not just for variety but because each is essential to a ship's life, if we can compare life to a sailing vessel.

The open seas are where the trade winds are caught to new destinations. It is where you meet the storms and waves of the seas, and your strength and build will get battered. Through the regions of doldrums and endless seascape, you must trust that the compass and the Captain know where you are headed, even when you can't see land for months. It is also the place of the most amazing views, such as a placid night clearly illuminated by brilliant jewels in a black velvet sky. In such moments, you feel alive and know you are fulfilling the function for which you were created.

The harbors are for repairs and supplies, for new directions. Each harbor is distinct and the load placed in the hold is specific. The supplies and repairs equip the ship for the next leg of the journey to make sure the cargo arrives to its destination. If the weak boards are not replaced, that could mean danger on the high seas, and if the stowaway is not caught, it could mean mutiny or an unexpected burden. The harbor is for renewal and restoration, a reality check for oiling the squeaky places.

The coastlines provide the route from one harbor to the next, when the route doesn't involve crossing oceans. They are unique and provide information about the differences in the make up of earth's landscape and varied inhabitants. Each country's coastline, while similar in essentials for docking and trading, similar in needs, is unique in language and custom. Discovering these idiosyncracies offers your ship a wealth of knowledge and adventure, through which the coral reefs of Australia will become distinguishable from the shoreline of Sharm il-Sheikh.

"Explore. Dream. Discover," wrote Mr. Twain, which is what I want to do anyway, whether recouping in a harbor, sailing down the coast of Africa, or somewhere in the middle of a Pacific storm. Admittedly, there are always factors at work that want to keep me in the harbor, until the repairs become an excuse for staying. It is in this one choice that the regrets of what I don't do could, twenty years from now, replace the list of things I did do. That is why the term "fearless" is included in the page title, because to be fearless in my world is to know I am not trusting myself to sail me, but the Captain.

Heh, I tend to think in similes and metaphors, images in my head that in one snapshot can explain to me a feeling, a purpose or a concept. It appears that Twain's sails have blown me on a metaphorical journey in today's description. But I let them take me, because what is a ship, if not made for sailing!? ;)