A ship in harbor is safe…
Photo by Joel Bengs on Unsplash
A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. John A. Shedd (1859-1928)
How I wish to be safe in the harbor now.
How I wish to harbor myself and the people I love from wave after wave after wave of building collapses, climate change, high grocery prices, the nonstop lying of politicians and pundits (and the violence of their followers), school shootings, social media shit storms, tornadoes, viruses, and wildfires.
How I wish to harbor myself where I don’t have to make decisions of great and lasting consequences. Decisions that affect my family. Decisions that affect my neighbors. Decisions that affect the people who work for me. Decisions I might get wrong. Decisions that make me prone to the anger, criticism, and resentment of the very people for whom I’m trying to care.
Decisions that make me prone to the harm and suffering of others if I get those decisions wrong.
How I wish for an easy job, easy marriage, easy parenthood, easy politics, easy religion, easy situations and easy solutions to every one of them.
How I wish I didn’t face the death and dying of the people I love most.
How I wish I didn’t face my own creeping mortality, shadows growing longer, time running out.
How I wish to be safe in the harbor now.
But I suppose I should thank God that he will never let me rot there.
He casts me out upon the waves and charts a course for me through the violent sea. This is life. I may choose to live it or I may choose to waste away in the harbor.
At least I know who is with me in my little boat.
Grace and peace.