Safe Harbors and Sailing Ships

Cynthia Fronk

From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another.

John 1:16

I had been a registered nurse about a year when I decided to move from my home in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to take a veteran’s hospital in Prescott, Arizona. It was a lonely time- my first
venture away from home.

I spent many evenings alone in my small apartment worrying about how I could achieve my
goals and wondering if the move had been the right decision for me? Perhaps it would have been better
if I had stayed in Milwaukee, I often thought.

As I sat on my second-hand sofa, eating my dinner from a burger bag one evening, I began to
think about home. I pictured myself in the kitchen with my mom, making delicious strawberry jam and
grape jelly. Later, I could see myself sitting at the table with my mom, and my brother and sisters, eating
warm apple cobbler topped with dairy-fresh whipped cream. I missed the warmth of home and the love
and security it represented.

One day, I was feeling particularly blue. Although I loved my job, my heart ached for my family.
Maybe I should move back home, I reasoned.

That morning, while at work, I received a package in the mail from my mother. She hardly ever
shops, so I was surprised. What would have inspired her to send me a gift? I wondered. I tore away the
brown wrapper, opened the package, and pulled out a poster silhouetting a large ship sailing into a
blushing sunset. The words emblazoned across the gentle reflective waves touched me to the core. They
said, “Sailing ships are safe in their harbor, but that’s not what sailing ships were built for.”

It was if I could see my mother’s face smiling in approval. For the first time, my decision to leave
home and set out on my own felt right. I knew my mother, though she was not a demonstrative,
affectionate woman, was trying to tell me that she missed me but supported my decision to go. She
wanted me to be where I felt called to be, and she wanted me to do what I felt called to do. I knew I
would sail farther still because my quest was championed by my mother’s love.

Mark Twain once said, “Twenty years from now you’ll be more disappointed by the things that
you didn’t do than the things you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

(Reference: Teatime Stories for Women)