Not Smooth Sailing

I once won an award for sailing. I had totally forgotten that until a few months ago looking through an old photo album I saw an article I had cut out and proudly preserved that 14 year old Vicky had won some sailing race at Whitney Point. I don't remember the race at all, and I am incredulous about winning as I was not a very good sailor. In fact, while I can sail, and taught my children to sail, I did so a bit unconventionally. The way I know which way to head the boat is to turn it such that the wind hits my cheek at a certain spot. Then I know I am on the right tack. So I cannot explain how to sail, but I can feel it.
My dad was an exacting teacher and he was the one who taught me to sail. Again, I don't remember the lessons but I sincerely doubt he used the wind on the cheek method of instruction. I do remember him teaching me the dangers of sailing. Never ever "come about" (change direction) by going away from the wind. You always come about by going into the wind, "unless you are very skillful". If you come about by going away from the wind, the wind grabs the back end of the boom (the long heavy horizontal metal pole that holds the bottom of the sail) and it smacks it full force in the opposite direction. Wind can carve mountains away, so you can imagine what it can do with a weapon like a boom. Dad warned us that it could remove our head. On the other hand, if you come about going into the wind, the wind softly flutters to the other side of the front of the sail, and slowly eases the boom across the boat, changing the direction the sail catches the wind, and you sail on your new tack with your head still propped on your shoulders. This is by far the preferred result in coming about as heads are quite necessary for sailing so that you can shout, "Coming about!" which makes everyone on shore gaze admiringly at you. Dad used to bellow, "Coming about! Everyone down!!!!" and we children would dive for the floor of the boat, well out of reach of the dangerous boom, though of course, Dad never came about away from the wind, so the boom was less of a threat than it could have been. Still Dad made it clear that little childrens' heads could be smacked open like ripe melons by booms even when coming about into the wind and we were not to raise them above "boom line" until the all clear sounded.

Dad's warning to never ever come about away from the wind was so full of dire consequences that I never thought of attempting to disobey..... until my rebellious young adulthood. There had been that little nagging caveat- "unless you are very skillful". Skillful people could ostensibly come about away from the wind, and still live to eat their fig newtons waiting on shore. If skillful people could do it, why couldn't I? After all, I had been sailing for years now. Surely I was now among the skillful people who could come about away from the wind. I understood that coming about into the wind was far safer, and far preferred, but maybe there was some hidden thrill that I was missing by not coming about away from the wind. And surely when Dad forbid me to come about away from the wind, he didn't mean today when the wind was not so very hard and there were so few boats on the lake and when he wasn't watching so he wouldn't worry about having to go retrieve my head bobbing bodyless on the water.

So in partnership with Eve as she gobbled the forbidden apple, I sailed to the middle of the lake, and shouted, "Coming about AWAY from the wind!" and ducked. Dad had been right. The force of the wind grabbing the back end of the sail was tremendous and while I am a fast ducker, I was not fast enough. The boom smacked me in the head, not quite hard enough to remove sinew and bone, but hard enough to explain my amazing lack of memory capability. The boat teetered on the verge of toppling to its side, and I dropped the sail rope as I grabbed my aching head. The sail flapped wildly back and forth and the boat turned gradually into the wind as the fluttering sail slowly calmed.

Sometimes I hit patches of rough water in life and overwhelming winds because God is honing me, and training me for some future purpose I may not understand. But sometimes, I make my own dangerous winds and waves. In both cases, I need to cling to the words of my Father because they carry both warning and promise, despair and hope. And whenever possible, come about into His wind.

²⁶ See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse- ²⁷ the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today - Deuteronomy 11: 26-27