Dear Traveller,
Life really does make us feel like a ship lost at sea on most days. You can’t figure the route to shore. Staring into a vast space of nothingness, no ship sailing past for you to ask for help, the sky above is blue and empty. No bird to beg for rescue.
Every journey always starts out with a plan, a direction and a desire to get to an expected destination. At a certain point it feels like the map is not instructing you on the correct route to follow, Is the map wrong? Are you misreading it? It’s a crazy feeling being lost.
Storms are the worst. They always come when you least expect. Dark clouds start forming as if the devil is secretly plotting to kill you. The wind is the nastiest, that’s the voice of the devil, starts out whispering, peacful. Then it begins to roar, tearing through everything in its part. The waters begin to dance, it’s always dancing but this time, it’s moves aren’t elegant like salsa, but like a mad man dancing crunk, too energetic to stop. You are being tossed to and fro, it’s anger knows no end.
But it will end, because the storm like every other thing created wasn’t made to last forever. The most dangerous ship on sea when a storm occurs is an empty ship. That’s because the weight of cargo helps stabilize the ship against the waves.
In the teeth of the storm, a ship’s survival depends on two things: sea room and steering-way. Sea room means that the ship is a safe distance from anything it might crash into. Steering-way means that the ship is moving forward with enough power to steer rather than just getting pushed around by waves and wind. Wind and waves will try to turn the vessel, and pushing against them requires forward momentum.
The job of a traveller is to survive the storm life brings his way in order to arrive at his destination. Nothing else matters, not even the state of the ship. So search for the things on the inside of you that will hold you through, protect yourself from anything that will hurt you and Press on. The only way out is through.