When You Set Out On Your Journey
Do Not Embark With A Heavy Heart.
But Do Not Expect Your Voyage To Be Easy!
Like Ulysses, You Will Meet Unknown Challenges,
And May Often Face Death, Whether Your Ship
Must Negotiate The Narrow Strait
Between The Clashing Rocks,
Or Pass Close By Charybdis, The Great Whirlpool.
I, Myself, Have Sailed That Very Course,
And Know Charybdis Well…
Do Not Let Her Take You Down.
Nay! You Must Sail With A Light Heart
And A Sense Of Adventure,
And Though Your Hopes And Fortunes
Will Be Dashed From Time To Time,
Remember That It Is Not The Challenges Themselves
That Are Important, For These Are Many
And Beyond Prediction,
And May Come In Many Forms,
From Rock-Hurling Cyclops’,
To Sweet-Singing Sirens.
You Cannot Know Which Will Confront You
Or When They Will Come Upon You,
Your Charts Will Not Give You
That Kind Of Information,
You Will Only Ever Know That They Will Come.
It Is Not The Challenges Themselves
But How You Meet Them That Is Important.
It Is This Which Shapes You.
It Is This Which Makes You Who You Are,
Which The Welcoming Crowds
Will Notice At Your Homecoming,
Seeing How Worldly You Have Become,
Or How Wise And Compassionate,
Or How Worn And Hardened And Cruelled
By Time And The Relentless Sea.
So, Accept The Experiences As They Come To You,
Neither Valuing Them As ‘Bad’ Or ‘Good’ –
For This Is A Misunderstanding Of What They Mean –
But Take Them All The Same,
And While Others You Meet On Your Journey
May Appear To Be In Control Of Their Destiny
In A Way That You Seem Not,
Or May Seem To Have The Ear Of The Gods,
Or Luxuriate In Riches Plundered From Foreign Ports,
Or Dress In Finery Like Kings Surrounded
By Their Women And Their Slaves,
And Their Glittering Armies,
Glorying In Their Own Magnificence,
Know That These Are Fools
Who Look Not Upon The World But Into Mirrors.
Know That This Is False,
And Judge Not Your Own Coarse Sea Dress
Nor Travel-Hardened Manners
As Unworthy, But Know That All
Are On This Same Journey Which, In The End,
Will Not Be Measured In Trappings
But In Deeds, Will Not Be Measured
In Wealth, But In Character.
To Become Who You Are
Is The True Purpose Of Your Voyage.
Go Then, The Cool Dawn-Light Is Mirroring The Sea,
A Breeze Has Risen And The Tides Are In Your Favour.
Your Ship Is Ready, Well-Made
And Well-Provisioned For Your Voyage,
She Lies In The Harbour Stirring
Impatiently At Her Moorings.
Your Crew Are Keen To Go,
With Sea-Salt’s Stories Of Foreign Ports
And Strange Lands Exciting Their Minds,
They Are Busying Themselves,
Readying Sails And Seating The Long Oars
To Pull Your Ship From The Harbour.
You Have Made Your Sacrifices
To The Gods, Now All Is In Readiness.
It Is A Fine Day To Start A Voyage,
Go Then To What Awaits You