Day 5: Builder’s Journey…

Yesterday Kitty gave us a glimpse into some of the moments of truth along her Builder’s Journey.  Here’s a little story from mine.

As seventeen-year-old camp counselors in central Maine, I and two friends, decided to spend a day off traveling to the coast and renting a sailboat for the day. We departed from Willy’s Wharf in Camden Harbor with no real agenda or destination other than to enjoy the summer day and explore an unfamiliar body of water, the Penobscot Bay. Our 18-foot sloop had a heavy fixed keel, well matched to its sails, which made for an enjoyable jaunt in the crisp early afternoon breeze.  We happily enjoyed the sun and sea until midafternoon approached and the wind left us with little propulsion.  Not a problem, we thought, as the incoming tide and a paddle (if undersized) would easily serve to bring us around the point of land which we believed was all that stood between us and the harbor.  Adding our cooler top as an additional paddle, we pulled our way north to conclude our voyage, only to find no harbor… just a lone fisherman casting from his powerboat.

Confused and disoriented, I called out to him, “Excuse me, sir, can you tell me where Camden Harbor is?” “Yep,” he replied in a thick Maine accent, “about four miles that way.” He pointed south… the opposite direction from where we were headed.  Even more confused I figured I must have misunderstood.  “Can you point it out to me?” I called back.  “Sure!  See that little itty-bitty point of land off on the horizon?” “Yeah,” I replied, squinting at an impossibly far dot of land.  “That ain’t it… past there.” 

We had become lost at sea (or more accurately at bay).  A few phone calls and several hours later, two Boston Whalers containing the entire Willy’s Wharf clan (Golden Retriever included) towed a boat of three embarrassed “tourists” safely back to Camden Harbor.  The name of our rented sloop? The Miss Calculation. Truly, you can’t make this stuff up.

As a builder I see a lot of prospective clients who have gotten lost at bay.  They hop in their boat and let the winds of fate push them out on their journey; or, more often, the voices of other people’s expectations and society’s messages fill their sails. Never having done the work of awakening to what they believe, who they are, or why it matters, they go chasing things such as money and title.  Like me, they leave the harbor with no destination or vision, no chart or compass, and so end up where the wind, tide, and current take them, one day awakening to the reality that the harbor they expected is not there.  

This is why, when we as builders come alongside a client, we get busy with the hard work of building their CORE and writing their OPUS.  We are all sailing along on our Builder’s Journey. Is yours authentically authored, and does it include a beautiful vision and a big “why,” or are you just being blown along, asleep at the rudder?  What work do you need to do to avoid a Miss Calculation?