Note: Thanks & appreciation for this special guest reflection by Terry Chapman

Photo (All’s Well) courtesy of Endurance photographer and Ernest Shackleton

The Winds of Fate
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“One ship sails east and another drives west
with the selfsame winds that blow.
‘Tis the set of the sails and not the gales
which tells us the way to go.
Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate
as we voyage along through life:
‘Tis the set of the soul that decides its goal,
and not the calm or the strife.”

We are all caregivers at one time or another in our lives.  Each gives and receives care.  But when the prognosis is somber, then is the time for “the set of the soul” to take over and guide us to a safe harbor, free of all worries, fears, and obstacles.  We know deep down that “this too shall pass!”

In my life, again and yet again, when faced with challenges and obstacles I remember this poem from my childhood days growing up in Maryland, as this poem and a painting of a ship in a stormy sea, adorned our family dining room.  None of us talked about it; but it was always there as we cared for my brother Ronnie, severely challenged by deafness, autism, and an inability to learn to speak.  We lived day to day with courage, persistence and love, fostered by this nautical metaphor.

What is the set of your soul?

Terry Chapman