Sailing calmer waters into beautiful sunsets...

Illness, death, wrong place/wrong time, broken trust, just not ready...so many ways to lose the the beautiful Sunset view. [Sunset = love, career, offspring, purpose, health, etc., etc....whatever yours is...this is about the setting sun.]

BUT...ALAS...there are many lakes and rivers and oceans...and many boats.  Perhaps you haven't missed the boat...perhaps the right boat is looking for the right kind of passenger.  Not everyone belongs on a sailboat, or a fishing boat, or a yacht, or a cruise ship, or a motorboat, or a submarine.  

Let's stand still a minute...give it a chance to find our anchored feet; our open hearts; our unrelenting hope.  Yes...here it comes; be ready!

I have never liked the "be prepared" Bible story of 'the bridegroom cometh,'...too hard for me.  Personally, I always felt I would have been one of the bridesmaids with an empty oil lantern.  I never have things together...can't find the hammer, the keys, the blouse I want to wear, the book I borrowed. Some of us are 'ready' challenged.  Yep, that's me!  You?

So, lets examine some reasons that even the 'ready-challenged' among us can have hope.  I don't like lists much..."3 Ways to ____"  Who could possibly KNOW there are only 3 ways...maybe there are 5 ways...or 36 ways...  So my little list here is only what is on my mind today.

First, we can rejoice that the 'bridegroom' story came before the sacrifice of the King's son. With that awesome act a LOT changed!  Now, even being 'unready' is forgiveable...white as snow...like it never happened.  Feel bad for not being ready a few times in the past?  When was that?  It's forgotten...don't forget that!...don't bring it up any more.  (speaking strongly to myself here)

Secondly, life never runs out of opportunities.  Having lived in 4 states and 6 cities, I know this for sure.  I suppose for those of you who have been planted in the same place forever, it might not be so obvious.  So much sameness; so much repetition.  But I KNOW this to be true.  Forget your sweet Mother's admonitions, "You'll regret this."  Out of all those regret warnings of my youth, I only regret that I stopped playing the piano.  The rest is forgotten - insignificant.  And some opportunities caught me by surprise, like my going home again, after a 50 year absence...I killed that cliche.  But I also discovered that going back home isn't what it was cracked up to be.  NOW is so much more interesting.  NEW is such a delight...filled with surprises and challenges that delight.  Now, I'm trying to leave again...strike out to new people, thinking, being...I wasn't made for a backward path.  I'm made for NEW, BIG, CHANGE...but with peace.

Thirdly, on my little list is the fact that LOVE has matured and is the key to finding the right boat to float on.  Love has changed so very much since I first discovered it on that night that I was studying for exams with my college sweetheart...I recall looking over the isle where he studied at another desk...just two of us in the empty building.  I was struck as with a bolt of sweet warm lightning...'This is HIM.  He found me!'  The feeling and the image forever seared on both heart and head.  A fond remembrance of a loved one in another realm of life now.

Yes, seeking the sunset is all about love.  I love my dogs; I love my house; I love my friends; I love my man;  I love that dress in the window and I want it too!  And therein lies the significance of the change in LOVE.  I can extend 'love' to anything/anybody and want it too!

When I leave my home in the morning and go to face the big world, it is an entirely different expeience if I've taken time to get the 'love engines' going...it takes me much further than the gasoline engine that drives me.  How amazing the responses of people I run into when I have love in my heart.  How surprising that parking places open mystically as I drive throught the parking lot.  LOVE Is like magic today....always delighting and defending and opening doors.  Something is different about me when I join the marching throngs of the world with love in my heart.  Laughingly, I walk out the door and announce verbally (to no one), "I'm comin' World...gonna' spead a little love around...on my way!"  (I really do this!)  

So, how is LOVE different today than the awesome, wonderful 'first love' experienced in that classroom with my college sweetheart (who I married)?  

It's kinder; it's less self-absorbed; it's more purposeful in it's desire to help others; it's more friendship oriented.  It doesn't belong to me any more...I can't hold it any more...it's given to me/through me/within me for the good of all I touch... my man's hand in mine; a dog's furry head; a look into the eyes of a lonely person on a lonely bench in a shopping mall; the feel of real leather on a chair that calls...you want me - take me home.  Everything I touch or see gets a bullet-quick shot of my love.  Of course there are those who get more of it...and more often.

Don't worry about missing the boat....somewhere out there is the boat that brings unbroken trust, health, the right place/the right time, a willingness to help you prepare, a life worth living. And it will pull close enough to shore that you can safely climb aboard without fear of deep waters or of later being dropped off at a foreign port.  This boat will remain and sustain...sharing real love that is friendship that accepts and cherishes.  Be not afraid...no motion sickness acquired because its caring nature offers smooth sailing. 

Be happy; you've been found by a love boat and befriended for the ride to the sunset.

May your career, your health, your children, your relationship,  your sense of purpose be enjoyed on the ride.

(September 27, 2016)