There aren’t many benefits to being awake before four and wondering what to do with your day. But one, was a benefit I took this morning; a trip to Ballast Point in time to catch twilight.
It was clear skies and a temperature of 61 degrees that reassured me that it was a justified trip and so I opted to forego the chance to take a nap on the sofa after feeding and releasing all the furry guys from the office.
The drive isn’t that far off an hour, I guess, but the black coffee provided that magic elixir that kept me focused on the road and allowed my mind to wander onto my adventure ahead.
I didn’t really have wild expectations but after a mediocre week, I needed something under my belt that threw the balance in my favor. Yes there were one or two wins during the week, but these were dwarfed in failures and honestly I need more than mediocre at this stage in my life.
When I got there, there were a few fellow-adventurers there ahead of me but I still got to choose my views without interruption. I have thrown a small selection at the end of the blog … hope you enjoy.
I was back out and on my way home to my furry friends a good ten minutes ahead of sunrise but it was definitely mission accomplished as regards seeing what I wanted to see.
Interestingly enough, for the first time that I can remember, it was on my way down there that I came up with the idea for this blog. It is normally a thought on my way home that delivers the notion for this blog of mine, but not today.
You see, I was thinking about the name of the place I was driving to and wondering how it came to be named so. Given the sea-faring history of Tampa Bay, I imagined that it must have been the point at which ocean-going ships took on ballast for the journeys ahead.
Interestingly enough, I was almost right. It was actually where ships dumped their ballast so that they could enter the narrower and shallower waters of the bay.
Ballast, in case you don’t know, is additional weight taken on by a ship in order to stabilize it for rough waters. It could be water, rocks, republicans, … anything inanimate that would lower the hull in the water and make it less likely to roll when hit by a lateral wave.
As is always the case in my twisted mind, I looked for the relevance of that action within our own lives. I enjoy drawing parallels between things that happen within the world and things that we do within our own world.
In this case, I allowed my mind to wander along the tracks of how important it is in life to take on this balance as we venture out into our own deep waters.
Sometimes, the balance comes from a new person that becomes important within our life; a wife or husband, a child, a mentor or a muse.
These are the people who stabilize us and give our lives greater purpose and direction. We tend to mature with their presence and we become better at withstanding turbulence that comes at us from our blind-side.
Other times, the balance come from something that we have deliberately pulled into our lives; an education, a career, a devotion, a mission. This ballast improves our focus and establishes the path to our goals as we navigate our life journey.
No one is born with ballast. It isn’t a natural part of who we are. We have to earn it and make it work for us. For example, children have no ballast and they live a life for themselves that careens from one side to another following whatever gives them joy at any given moment.
Most of us grow out of our childish instabilities by adding ballast and becoming more stable in our dealings with others and with life.
You can easily spot those who navigate life without ballast. They tend to be wildly inconsistent and precocious liars. They can be loud and brash and even intransigent, but only for the moment. For example they may be militant about a woman’s right to choose one year and a vocal anti-abortionist the next. A prominent donor to democrats one year and a republican candidate the next.
You’ve seen these people everywhere, so I will avoid the temptation to point out the dotard.
They exist in all walks of life and to the day they die, their life is all about themselves.
When we encounter people like this we should avoid them as much as possible, as they only create havoc and disunity.
But more importantly, we need to make sure that we too are not those people.
Are we solid and reliable or flaky and irresponsible? Have we decided yet between becoming a rocket scientist or a ballet dancer?
Are we someone that people come to when they look for advice? Can people count on us in a moment of need?
You don’t need to be a rock in the lives of others. Rocks are intransigent and people run aground on them. What you need to be is a stable vessel that will navigate solidly through life’s stormy waters, occasionally rescuing others along the way, and ultimately reaching your final destination with your hull intact.
… just a thought.
