Sailing Ships

I think that we've all reached a point in life where things got out of hand in some way.  The job becomes a situation. Your health is precarious. Your relationship is struggling. Your family is a battleground. 

At that point, it's easy to become a vessel -- like the kind you drink out of. A cup, if you will. Filled with all of the things: stress and doubt and worry and shame and anger. When you're at your breaking point, it's hard to find room in your life for the positives that you want to fill your soul; you can only vaguely remember what it was like to be the other kind of vessel, the seagoing kind, the kind that sets a course and travels it with intention and determination and joy and laughter.

When your boss is a jerk and you are sick of being sick and your partner can't hear you and your kids are driving you crazy, think of this:

I can become filled with this.

Or.

I can ride this wave.

You can be the vessel that is filled (and subsequently sinks), or the vessel that floats and survives to steam through another day. 

It's your choice.

And, so you know, I'm not saying it's easy. Life is ridiculously hard. Some days, just getting out of bed is a freaking triumph. I know. I've been there.

But.

When you're facing the day, when you find yourself facing the shitstorm that life can be, ask yourself: sink or swim? Will I let this fill me and destroy me, or can I find a way to ride it out? Try to remember: you are not in this alone. Try to recall: there are people all around you, in their own boats, who will throw out lines and help to keep you from sinking. 

You are a vessel.

Ride the waves.