Ship in harbour...

Graffiti is sometimes like a spontaneous street poetry fest. I was driving past this open door and just had to get out and photograph this bit when I read it:

‘A ship is safe
in harbour,
but that’s not
what ships are for’
- William Shedd

Of course, being in harbour is partly what ships are about – unloading their cargo and being repaired and made sea-worthy again – but it’s not their full story. Not the only point to their existence.

Similarly, sometimes we might need to unload stuff and take care of ourselves in a safe, nourishing place. Perhaps even be hauled out of the water and dry-docked every now and then, to have the barnacles scrubbed away. To be mended and healed and made ready for the next part of our journey.

(Where might your own safe harbours be? How do you find your nourishment and repair? Is it about place? Solitude? Or is it more about peace within certain relationships for you?)

And, what about ‘what ships are for’? What else might your life be about?
When you leave your harbour and return to the ebb and flow of things, where do you usually set sail for?

Do you travel the same shipping route again and again?

Or do you sometimes want to set a course for new shores and maybe see where the tide takes you?

What might your ship be made for?

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(c) Gabrielle Gawne-Kelnar 2010