SAILING

I just got off the boat 24 hours ago. I was taking sailing lessons in Traverse City Bay off Lake Michigan. We were on a 39 foot yacht. My friend and I were with the Captain and another student going from port to port.  We slept on the boat, studied on the boat and practiced anchoring, saving a “crew overboard”, docking and handling sails in various kinds of wind. We sailed with the 15 knot winds, into the wind on calm waters, and in the stormy waters of 10 to 12 foot waves.(Now that was a real adventure, trying to hold the wheel and steer a course with waves rising and falling, pushing the 18000 pound vessel at will.)

But what I am feeling now is the moving sensation while standing and sitting still. It still feels like I am on the boat even after being on terra firma for these 24 hours. My head feels like it floating.

This adventure makes me aware of how the body adapts. While on the boat, I learned to move the muscles in my body to keep my balance in the rolling waves. My head learned to keep my brain relatively stable as the waters moved the body back and forth.  But, now that I am on land, the brain is taking some time to adjust to the surface under my feet not being in constant motion.

I am grateful for this feeling. It reminds me of how adaptable the human mind and body are. We can move from one environment to another and there is something in us that enables us to continue to be who we are. Our lives may change and feel as if the world has fallen apart and out of control. Winds and waves may apply their pressures.  But, humans are resilient. We are created to adapt to the constant changing reality of life itself. That is how we live and continue to flourish.

So, I feel my brain struggling to stand still.  And I am thankful.

RESILIENCE

Living well requires the capacity to adapt. Being reslient is the capacity to rebound. When one has had a significant setback (which we all experience at certain times in our lives) one's capacity to learn to live again beyond the crisis determines how happy they will be. When the past pain holds on so tight that we can't breathe the fresh air of tomorrow we miss much of what life has to offer.

Michael Sperber, MD suggests that one's capacity for resliience is related to one's capacity to "being-in-the-world." (Psychiatric  Times, July 2, 2012). He believes that the capacity adapt is related to the person engaging in three different conversations. One is being dialogue with nature. That is, the ability to ground yourself in the present is related to your being embrace by that of which we are a part and which sustains us. 

Anne Frank put it this way. "The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles." (Diary of a Young Girl, 1986).

As spring invades the heart land, I am discovering again the healing quality of being in nature. Dialogue with the expanse of sky and the solid footing of ground helps heal my pain and nurtures my soul. Maybe it can become a solace for you as well.

THANKS DADDY

Hiking today in the warming weather, sun shining, heart lighter. The dark clouds of frigid cold have taken a break and allowed the warming sun to melt the shoulder-hunched heart.

And I am thinking about my Daddy.  I am wondering how he would have handled my frustration during these past couple of days. My computer would not work and I was grouchy.  I couldn’t get my calendars to sync. I couldn’t write my blog. I had to type email replies on those little keys on my phone. (Not exactly life threatening frustrations.)

The reason I was thinking about my Daddy is that he would have known what to do. You see, he was creative and resilient. He could take any tool and make it do what he wanted. It is said that the key to getting things done is having the right tool. Well, my Daddy believed that the key to getting things done is making the tools you have do what you want them to do.

So, if he didn’t have a wrench, he would take the pliers he had and use them.  If they were not working, he would add a piece of scrap pipe to the end of the handles to get a tighter grip. If the job needed a chisel and he only had a screw driver, he made it into a chisel. 

This is the unwanted gift my Daddy received by being a child of the depression. It was a gift he probably would have preferred doing without, but one that made it possible for him to survive and provide a living for his wife and five children. 

Now, I admit that I didn’t inherit my Daddy’s tool skills. But, I am grateful for the gift he gave me of believing that I could make it with the gifts I had been given.  It doesn’t keep me from getting grouchy when I have to adapt, but it does enable me to stay with the tools I do have available for my work and get the job done.

On this warming day in a painfully cold winter, I am grateful for my Daddy.