Riding out the storm...

With all the activities going on in the world right now, I was thinking about the raw power that nature and unexpected events can have…with sometimes very little notification. Typically, when I think about natural events, they are usually earthquakes or weather-related, which caused me to start thinking about events that I’ve been through in my life…as I’m sure many of us have been doing lately.

My thoughts reminded me of a time when as a child, a hurricane was about to strike the Big Island, and at that time, we were living on a small boat. When I heard about the storm, I was concerned, as it was large and powerful, and I knew it could cause a lot of damage. I vividly remember my parents preparing the boat to go out to sea...into the storm…trying to outrun it and minimize a direct hit.

Naturally, this terrified me even more...as I did not understand why we would head out to sea in a storm, instead of keeping the boat tied to the dock so that we could ride it out…safely on or near land.

As we headed out to sea, I remember feeling terrified. The wind and waves continued to grow and soon we were so far out to sea that I could not even see land. We had to stay below deck…as the wind was strong and we didn’t want to either be blown into the ocean, or have a large wave wash us there. After a couple of hours, my parents handed my sister and me an emergency positioning response beacon, and said that if the weather got too bad, that I was to flip the switch, which would notify the Coast Guard of our position.

Once below, we were not allowed to go or look outside. I remember feeling scared as I waited to be given either reassuring guidance, or the signal to flip the switch.

After several very rough hours of swaying back and forth, going up and down…like riding a roller coaster for hours, eventually things were calm...and my fears subsided. We were finally allowed to step outside and look at the calm water. I would learn that we were in the eye of the storm, and that we'd have to go into the turbulent weather again…which was terrifying, as I had thought it was over.

The storm ended up breaking apart and we didn't have to go through the turbulence again, and we eventually went back to shore. I was surprised to see the boats which had stayed in the harbor and how many of them were still tied to the dock, but instead of floating, they had sunk.

In time, I would learn that keeping our boat docked in the harbor would have subjected it to massive swells that would have slammed the boat against the pier and put our lives at risk. Yet in the boat and out at sea, we had a life raft should the boat capsize, and we had enough food and water for a couple of weeks. While it didn’t feel that way at the time, we were safer out to sea, than we would have been at the harbor….yet if I had clung to what I believed was safety and what I had always known…things would have been much worse.

Please note that I am not a professional yachtsman (nor was I as a child), and this is merely sharing my reflection of an event, and the lessons I learned from it.

What I learned through this experience is that in life, sometimes events happen that we cannot control, sometimes they happen because of us, sometimes they happen to us, and other times they just happen. 

Regardless of when or where those experiences happen, it’s important to remain calm, stay focused, and keep a positive attitude. By staying calm, it allows us to spend our time making rational decisions…not driven entirely by emotion. By staying focused, it allows us to direct our energy and resources to address the challenges in front of us…and not spend a lot of those precious resources on things which aren’t essential or helping us address those challenges. The positive attitude helps us remain calm, stay focused and ensures we’re always keeping an eye out and our mind open for potential opportunities to help us with our challenges lest we miss them due to our own cloud of negativity.

As we ride out this proverbial storm, I would encourage each of us to reflect on those docks and shores that we cling to today…and consider if we’d be better off letting go and heading out to sea…taking that leap into the unknown…because we may discover it’s a safer, smarter and better place to be.

I wish each of you a wonderful rest of your week and look forward to not only getting through the challenges we are facing right now, but also using these experiences to continue to improve how we react and respond to future challenges we face.