Sailboats in the Wind – A Metaphor for Living

I had recently been contemplating the message of Trust and Letting things be, when i had the good fortune to visit Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. It is a beautiful park with tree lined avenues, manicured lawns and riots of colour in its flower beds.

Suffice to say, while I KNOW that Trust is central to how many amazing things  happen, it is always easier said than done. Some people might perhaps refer to it also as Faith. However as they say, lessons can happen anytime and anywhere, and as we made our way through the park we came across a large octoganal-shaped shallow lake. This lake was filled with sail boats and dozens of children racing round.

At first glance, I thought that perhaps they were remote-controlled boats, controlled by their owners from the side of the lake. However, it was interesting to note that all the children running around the lake, did not carry remote controls, but each held on to a long rubber edged pole.

It turns out that the yachts were not remote-controlled at all, they were really very low-tech.

They were simply very beautiful wooden sail boats with actual sails. No motors, no controls. They were simply entrusted to the wind to carry them to whichever side of the lake the wind blew.

The children started off by gently placing the boats in the lake, before using the pole to give it a hard shove off. From there on, the wind simply took the boat where it wanted. All the boats ended up at another end of the lake where the children could again set the boat off and entrust it to the wind.

Initially my mind filled with a multitude of fear-based questions,

How would the owners get the boats back?

What if they got stuck, sank, capsized?

What if someone else took your boat?

However as I sat and observed the joy of the children, I had a number of realisations, simply from watching these sailboats free in the wind.

1. Shove off

Each and every one of the of sailboats had to be shoved off from the side of the lake before the wind could carry them off.

It was very reminiscent of the saying  “Start now!”
Whatever you want to achieve
Whatever desire or goal that we have, we do need to start off with an action.
Perhaps as simple an action as making a plan, or even  visualising an outcome.

There’s always something magical in starting.

2. Wind in your sails

Once the boats where set off from the side of the lake, whether the owner had a direction in mind or not, the winds carried them off.

It was a very interesting reminder that for so much of our lives we live and set goals, strive and work to achieve what we set off to. Sadly we often find it so hard to let go and trust IN the process, and trust that the process will lead us where it is meant to.

Watching the sailboats in the wind reminded me that…

3. Wherever the wind may blow, Trust

On multiple occasions, many of the sailboats were set off in a set direction, but every now and then, the wind would change direction and the sailboat would be off in a different direction. They always arrived somewhere on the other side of the lake, perhaps not always where their owners intended.

Changing directions, may get to a different destination, but it still gets somewhere often more interesting for its journey and often making for a better destination too.

There are many times in our lives when a change of direction feels like the only option, but there is often so much fear and uncertainty when we are forced to take a walk down a path that is different and we forget that we will always land somewhere on the other side: things will always work out.

Perhaps not exactly as we envisaged it, but in their own time, in their own way, life resolves.

If this post touched or inspired you, please do share it, and if you have any further thoughts or would like to share some experiences, I would love to hear from you.

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Take care and be happy.