tacking into the wind

One would think that the fastest way to sail a boat would be to sail so the wind is directly behind the boat, filling the sails and speeding you on your course. Any sailor will tell you that with modern boats, the fastest and most efficient movement comes when you tack into the wind. Tacking is a manner of moving the boat in a kind of zigzag fashion so the direction of the wind is changing from side to side and you are moving both into the wind and across it.

Please do not worry. The above paragraph is not a foreshadowing that I am returning to the awful boat metaphors that were sprinkled madly across the blog just a few years ago. But old habits die hard. At least the metaphor is a bit more put together this time.

Change is like that. Transformation and awakening is like that. We think that the fastest and most sure way to achieve our growth is to get the wind behind us, the momentum behind us and to fly forward in a straight line. But our internal lives are very similar to water; it is why emotions are often described as being currents and waves in an ocean. We always have all emotions going on at once in our bodies; they are currents in our ocean. When they collide in certain orders, they rise into a wave. Usually, we don’t recognize what we are feeling until the wave has crested and begins to come crashing down. But for every emotion we recognize – there are 10 beneath it that have stacked up to create the feeling.

Sometimes it is better to tack into the wind as we sail on our own seas. It takes more effort than just pointing ourselves down wind, we must constantly pay attention to the winds, the currents, the fluttering of the canvas and be responsive enough to adjust our direction so we can catch the wind again in a new way and move across the wind and current, rather than just follow it in a single direction.

It was…61 degrees Fahrenheit here today. I had to pry the Mad Kitten out of her winter nest and boot her out into the yard. Then she didn’t want to come back in and just had a blast. I saw the skunk again and he is beautiful. All grown up and trucking down the driveway. He is almost 3/4s white. I have never seen anything like it. Actually, he is reversed. Instead of a white stripe down his back, he has a black one. He remains sweet and respectful. I just will never forget the look on his face when he came into the cave as a baby. It was warm enough for MK to take up her station on the top of the fence post and watch the chickens next door. The chickens have scared the bejesus out of her and she keeps a respectful distance. The chickens made me think I was losing my mind at first until I found out that yes, there were chickens next door.

Life is good. Not always in the way we want it to be or on the schedule we would like to keep, but overall, life is very good.

Testing the wind is the only way to know when to change course so that you can stay on course. Funny the logic of that, it goes against all of our assumptions about accomplishing goals but sometimes, the path to a goal is crooked. Then again, who was it that said something about broad and straight paths not being the best way to go?

c.2012 Cassandra Tribe. All Rights Reserved.