Leap Into Darkness

Leaping Into Darkness - Sherly Nome

"We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success." -Henry David Thoreau

A friend of mine had an unfortunate accident recently. Given the fall weather and the colorful leaves that come with it, inevitably the rain gutters will fill with them. The job of cleaning those leaves before the snow and ice appear becomes necessary.

So not thinking twice, he placed his ladder up against the house and climbed. What you may have already guessed is that the ladder did not remain in an upright position. The bottom slipped out and from roughly eight feet in the air, gravity did the rest.

Luckily he landed on both feet, a perfect landing in gymnastic terms. But most of us are not well-tuned gymnasts and my friend suffered a compression fracture of his L2 Vertebrae. The diagnosis is good and it will take time to heal. For now he is in a Rehab Center learning how to do all of those things we take for granted on a daily basis; like getting out of bed.

It happens that I was in the area where he lives on a business trip. So after work, I had made the decision to go visit him. I thought that a nice card and some magazines to read would help fill his days. Flowers would have been useless to him, so "Mr. Sensible" me would have to find a magazine stand instead of a flower shop.

Since this is New England, the early darkness that comes in the fall had descended like a curtain over the tree-filled landscape. So with a printed map, a GPS map on my phone, the gathering darkness and having Myopia vision (really badly), off I went.

There was no real use in bringing the maps for I couldn't read them without my reading glasses. And to put on my reading glasses meant that I could not see out past the windshield wipers on the car. The GPS map on my phone was a blur of bright light in the darkness as well. But off into the darkness I went, with a goal in mind to see my friend.

Each of us reach a point in life when we find ourselves in a similar position. Our goal is out there, somewhere in front of us and we are running out of daylight. We are scrambling to keep up with the light, trying to get as far as we can. But sometimes we need to embrace the darkness and let our other senses guide us.

The darkness is not something to be feared, it is something that merely changes the way we need to approach things. The dark may take away my clear vision, but it heightens my thoughts, my hearing, and mind. All of these other senses come to life when the light goes away. They each seem to shout out "its my turn, my turn to shine and guide me to the destination."

You have the power of many senses inside that sometimes only the gathering darkness reveals. Use them and trust them to guide you in life. Your vision in the light of day is only one-fifth of the generally known senses. There are at least four others, which would make sight an even smaller portion of what is available to us.

Rely upon everything at your disposal and not just sight. Use touch, hearing and even smells to remind you of familiar things. You have a mind that can process so many different things that soon the mystery of darkness becomes non-mysterious. Soon the darkness becomes just another path to walk on your way to those goals you have in life.

I made it to see my friend, the darkness did not hold me back. Leap out into the darkness and find your way in life. The light will return to provide additional clarity, and reveal the greatness in your life.

Fourth Down and One

"To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing." -Unknown

The two teams were in overtime, playing a heated rivalry football game. The score was knotted together at twenty-three to twenty-three with plenty of momentum on one side. The offense had fallen upon a fourth down with less than one yard to go for the first down. The ball was on their own twenty-nine yard line.

Here the easy decision could have been simple, punt and wait for another chance. The hard decision though was to try and go for it. If they made the first down, momentum would have clearly swung their way. If they did not make it, the opposing team would have an easy field goal and win.

The teams lined up, excitement grew as the quarterback barked out the call. Huge men came crashing together trying to outdo the other as the running back took hold of the ball. Into the mix of bodies he went, trying to search out those few precious feet. To no avail, he was stopped short of the first down marker, short of the goal that would allow them to continue.

The opposing team had stopped them on "4th and 1" and went on to kick the game winning field goal. One team victorious and another defeated. All of this drama played out for a mere two or three feet.

Sometimes we get that close to our own goals in life. One, two or three feet is all that seperates us from achievement. As we make our final push to cross over that line, we get pushed back, defeated and rejected. It seems during those few moments that all is lost.

But not all is lost, there is hope, there is strength in knowledge of what went wrong. There is greatness in moving forward and trying again. The obstacles in life we face sometimes get the better of us. Even when we felt we were unstoppable, even when we had the greatest of confidence in our own ability, the opposition will win sometimes.

So you withdraw, replan and then reattack the goal. You jump back into it with new experience and understanding. You keep trying.

Life and Camping

Camping Under The Stars 3 - Wayne England

"At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities." -Jean Houston

There is the story of the famed and fictional character Sherlock Holmes and his partner, Dr. Watson. If you have not read or seen any movies about them, I encourage you to read some of the stories.

One such story has our famous Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson going on a camping trip. After a good meal and chat around the campfire, they laid down for the night, and went to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

Watson replied, "I see millions and millions of stars."

"What does that tell you?" Holmes asked,Watson pondered for a minute.

"Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, I can see that God is all-powerful and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you?"

Holmes was silent for a minute, then spoke. "Watson, you have missed the point. Somebody has stolen our tent!"

Sometimes we get caught up in the vastness of all that is going on in life. The twenty-four hour news giving us the latest happenings. From a bridge across the St. Croix River in Minnesota to couples rushing to marry in China on this the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year 2011.

With all of this going on, the simple answers, the simple news might just be what is going on right in front of us. Don't get caught up in the magnitude of that is going on. The world is not "going to H-E-Double Hockey Sticks" as some might say. Life is just happening, just as the millions of stars have been in the sky for millions of years.

Take a moment and laugh. Take a moment and relax. Take a moment and just enjoy it.

Do The Right Thing

"Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible. " -Viktor E. Frankl

I am finding it hard to understand what I am hearing in the news lately. Now granted it is unlikely that I can know what is in another person's heart. Also know that I'm really working hard not to get judgemental about what I am going to say here.

The story surrounding what happened around and on the grounds of the Penn State football facilities is horrifying enough. A sexual predator destroying the lives of eight or nine young boys that we know of. It will be very hard and a long process for those young men to go through in recovering from his sordid actions.

What bothers me also are the actions, or in-action of people that could have stopped him sooner. As far back as 1998 there were people that could have done something. Recently a head football coach, a man that leads college-aged men onto a playing field, teaching them to do the right things in life, didn't do that. He simply told a higher authority in the college and then washed his hands of it.

These were horrible, despicable and illegal activities; informing legal authorities was the responsible thing to do. Now we have the uncovering of a supposed cover-up and even more grief for the young boys that were molested. The sexual predator has been arrested, the head football coach says he will retire at the end of the season.

The right thing to do happened though, he was fired along with the University President by the University Board of Trustees. No more leading men onto the field of play, no more roles in being responsible for their success due to his failure to be responsible. That has taken away any privilege he may have felt or wanted in retiring on his own terms. He lost that when he failed to do the right thing.

This story is not one that I want to make all about a football coach losing his job. The story is about those boys molested by a man entrusted that did very irresponsible things. The lives harmed could have been limited if others had done the right thing. By choosing wrong, even more lives have been altered and harmed as well.

We don't always get it right, that I get. Each of us have choices to make in life. Sometimes those choices are right and sometimes we make the wrong ones. If we hide things in the dark, they only fester like an open wound, never to experience true healing.

In the end, we must do what is right, what is responsible and what will move life forward.