“One ship drives east, and another west.
With the self-same winds that blow:
‘Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
Which decides the way we go.
Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate,
As they voyage along through life;
‘Tis the will of the soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife”
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
3 comments:
what a lovely image...
which is fine as long as the will of the soul knows which direction it wants to take...
sorry, not wanting to be difficult about this...:) x
What a lovely lyrical poem and the photo is glorious. I don't want to be difficult either but sometimes no matter how much you want to set those sails for one direction, the wind has other ideas.
Katie. I think that's the key. We need to know what we want and where we want to sail. yes, there will be many obstacles and gusts of wind to take us off course, but we have been blessed with what Psychologist and Existentialist Rollo May refers to as "Will" which offers us the choice to move from the potential to the actual. What May ascribes in his book, Love and Will, is that Eros (love) is the driving force and energy behind will. If our love/eros is in the core of our soul, it is there that we make the choices (based on faith, values, life circumstances, ability etc) to live our lives with a purpose. Our love and will are intertwined so that we can propel ourselves to continue to seek truth and beauty.
Yes, it's a bugger to try to figure out exactly where our life purpose lays, but that's what our own journey is all about isn't it? Rollo May believes the opposite of will isn't indecision. Rather, he believes it's detachment. To use our will to adjust our sails..........to seek out our purpose.....offers us a life where our own awareness will help charter our own destiny. With of course a little help from the Big Guy up there.
Then again, I may have sniffed too much floor cleaner today....... :)
Gypsy: No doubt there are SO MANY events in our lives that are completely out of our control....illnes is a biggie, as is trauma, nature's wrath, where we are born.........on and on......it's enough to make one slide under the covers and forget about it. But we don't do we?? We somehow find that hope, and if we're lucky surround ourselves with people who believe in us....we learn to readjust, regroup, and try again.....it may feel like we are beating ourselves up most of the time, and yet.......we do keep trying. Our will is a strong force. Our will is propelled by love, and it is the love that is the spirit of life.
Purpose........feeling that our lives have meaning and ARE meaningful move us to make decisions and to evaluate our choices.
No matter whether we are living in calm or strife...........
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