To Abby Sunderland ~ Wild Eyes

There are no guarantees in life. Safety is an illusion, and sometimes you have to do the impossible to begin living.

Abby Sunderland showed the world a miracle. Not that she survived, not that our prayers reached her, not that a 16 year old girl can tackle a daunting challenge alone. No, the miracle Abby showed us is that preparation counts for a lot, but letting go is everything. Abby and her family learned how to let go of fear and do it anyway. They prepared in everyway conceivable to mitigate the danger, but they supported her dreams.

I know a bit about fear and dreams. I’ve worked with kids who are so balled up inside that their fear drives their choices. Some of those kids turn to drugs and alcohol and a variety of risky behaviors. I myself wasn’t able to get out of my own fear for decades before I committed to letting go of fear and begin living my dreams.

If we let go of our dreams and hang on to fear, we die a slow, painful death--we may be physically safe, although I doubt that too, but we are mentally dying every single, painful day. But maybe, if we let go of fear and hang on to our dreams instead we will survive to have another dream. The choice is ultimately ours.

As a parent I cannot fathom losing a child.  I put myself in Abby’s parents place: would I, could I support my child to attempt such a dangerous thing? I’d like to think that I would have the courage to let him go…to accept that losing his life while living his dream would be far better than watching him turn away from living because of fear. Some of us will lose our children...what solace will we have if we cannot tell ourselves that they were living the life of their dreams? No, there are no guarantees in life--only the belief that we must follow our own North star and live life in accordance to what works for us. 

We’re not all cut out to be so spectacularly brave, but we are each cut out to find and live our dreams to our best ability. Hooray for Abby for discovering this so young. Hooray for her parents for knowing that this is something she had to do, and that to deny her was to harm her. Courage does not mean the absence of fear. Courage means feeling the fear and doing it anyway.