Bumping boats and falling in the water!

Website: bmistywycoff.com


I started out above the bay, having lunch at a spot that overlooks Morro Rock, the jetty and the head of the bay.  There was a flurry of activity below me.  Fishing boats entering and exiting the bay to open sea and what was, apparently a school for sailing.  I counted twenty-six white sails, on small, light 10 foot boats that looked like a child's drawing of a rowboat.  Clearly each single person on each single boat was learning how to navigate in the wind.  Initially it looked rather chaotic, a swarm of white moths, bumping into one another, stopping, starting, with no apparent design.  I would look away, distracted by a kayaker or someone walking on the inside of the dunes that protect the bay, or the little island with fat seals pushing each other off as they scrambled aboard the small space.  The flutter of the sails would pull my eyes back to watch this dance of learning.  As time passed and my lunch disappeared and my dogs were snoring in their after beach walk nap, there began a rhythm, a beat, unheard by me, but indeed the sailors.  Like flocks in the sky, on the point of a moment, many would shift the sail and turn.  At first it was two at one end of the group, then three in the middle.  As the afternoon deepened, so did their sense of balance in the wind.  An hour later I was watching a ballet.

Morro Bay Photos - Featured Images of Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo County - TripAdvisor


I was thinking about how we learn things.  Much like the people in the tiny sailboats.. at first we bump around getting it wrong as often as we get it right.  But WE DO LEARN...   You cannot do something over and over again without eventually thinking of a way to do it more efficiently, more beautifully.  As with many things, it is the PRACTICE of something that brings change.

How important is it to fail?  It is essential.  We could not drive a car the first time we sat behind the wheel, but as we sat there, again and again, in many traffic situations, we learned.  We learned to pay attention to what was important, and ignore what was not.  What a miracle, what a joy!  We learn, because...... WE LEARN!!   How cool is that?

Cue words:  "When I fail, it means I am in the process of learning."   Now say it again.