Sometimes the locks ahead are the only thing keeping you afloat…a sort of back pressure that keeps plenty of water under your boat, if you take my meaning. One of my favorite holidays was touring the Kennet and Avon Canals with my wife on a 50ft x 6ft solid steal canal boat called “Bedwyn” – just the 2 of us – from Reading to Bath in the UK…quite simply some of the most beautiful country you’ll ever see – and all at 2 miles per hour! I don’t recall just how many locks we navigated during our journey – probably dozens – some were easy and some pretty hard. Such is life…sometimes a little toiling is essential to move beyond the closed door in front of you…however, it also demonstrates that a little planning and design to your actions can make even a monumental challenge doable (consider that in order to move through the average lock on our journey we had to displace an average of 31,000 to 52,000 gallons of water each time!) Now of course we did not design the locks – in fact most of the locks we negotiated were built in the 1800’s – nonetheless, we should take notice of the resilience and aptitude of those ancient folk and take our own lessons from them. I think we too readily look for a path, sometimes any path, in life that avoids the locks ahead of us…and we miss the the real joy and discovery that ‘living’ often lies in the path that demands of us the full use of our faculties and a 100% commitment of strength of our body and soul. Really it’s the struggle that conceives success and accomplishment that matters…and every so often holds us back just long enough to make sure there is enough water to make the next leg of our life’s expedition.
Photo by Lawrence Lewis (2004)
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Lawrence Lewis
“Not all those who wander are lost.” — J. R. R. Tolkien
About Lawrence Lewis
I do a number of things professionally...but most of all and the true purpose of what I do through "my work" is to provide for my family, be a good husband and great father, and try to make a difference as a world citizen...I guess it's not much more complicated than that 🙂