Storm Battered But Still Afloat. A metaphor for human life.

I’m not one for new year resolutions, but I do begin each year with hope for a year where I live my life well. I hope for a life that will benefit others and be creatively fulfilling for myself. I continue to want to live the principles of pilgrimage on a daily basis and hope to remember to live my life prayerfully, simply, thankfully and with gratitude. To do so, I need to live my life slowly. To remember to avoid buying on impulse as most things I will be able to do without.

I am aware that there will be some rough times through the year. That is how life is. We had a storm last week and many people’s homes were inundated with sea water. The Thames / Coromandel coast road was heavily battered and undermined. Once again, communities were cut off as road crews worked to move debris so people could be on the move. We had just returned our dingy to its dingy shed some 24 hours before the storm hit. Bruce checked the shed and dingy early in the morning, before high tide, and said there was a little damage, but all was fixable. Little did we know, the tide would come surging in, an extremely high tide with waves driven against the shore by the storm strength winds. A man later told us he saw the tree trunk that a wave picked up and hit our shed.

We visited the scene at low tide to discover that the shed is no more. The pieces are scattered across the rocks waiting for us to collect them before the next super high tide can sweep them away to become a hazard to boats. Our dingy was lying on the rocks with one side destroyed.

This is a dingy that we have had for many a years. An old wooden dingy that is a good size for our use and one Bruce has reinforced so it can be dragged over the rocky shore. We were not sure it was salvageable. At the next high tide, when we went back to retrieve the dingy, to our amazement, it was floating. Storm battered, but still afloat. Because Bruce had reinforced the bottom of the little boat, it was able to float on the now still, calm water. Yes, we are going to restore this little boat. How could we not? The one post and top of another, are all that remain of the dingy shed which housed this sturdy little boat.