Dùthchas: Opportunities in the Calm before the Storm

 

Lewis and the Outer Hebrides is no stranger to a storm. Winter gales of 50-60 mph are common:  disrupting ferry travel and blowing roof tiles about the moors. Yet just before a gale, like today, is a quiet calm. The loch is a looking glass, reflecting back onto the croft. This calm before the storm is a gift of time. It is the Land's way of providing a day to organise and rest before what is to come. There is time to put garden furniture away; check on the sheep up the croft; stock enough peats and candles in case the electricity goes out. It allows time to bake, store milk, dry washing - all of the things a Hebridean would need to coorie in and wait out the weather.

    This lesson from the Land applies to life as well. There are moments during a career or work life that are gentle, where the daily routine takes on a meditative rhythm. These are the times to rest, reflect on what you have done, on the work gone by, on the work to come. We are provided these times in life for a reason. Without stopping to calmly rest, to celebrate a milestone, or to speculate on the pathway ahead, we are left out in the storm, blowing any way the gales of popularity send us. We are untethered to our life's purpose. The calm is a runrig of opportunity. It allows us time to consider. This gentle reflection back on our life, just like the loch back onto the croft, is the occasion to navigate and prepare for the calling ahead.

Today, before the storm, take a moment to re-calibrate your future, before the gales blow you astray.