50 yards

 

well my dear ones,

 

Once time I was reading about a woman

named Florence May Chadwick.

In 1950 she set a new world record

for swimming the English Channel

(21 miles as the crow flies;

 yet it can be up to a 39 mile swim

 depending on winds and tides)

from France to England in 13 hours 20 minutes.

 

A year later, she swam it again,

but in the opposite direction,

making her the first woman to swim the channel

in both directions.

 

In 1952, she tried to swim the 26 miles

between Catalina Island

and the California coastline. 

She was flanked by small boats

to watch out for sharks

or help her if she got in trouble.

15 hours into her swim,

a dense fog rolled in

and she began to doubt if she could make it.

 

She swam for one more hour,

then called it quits.

 

Sitting in a boat,

she discovered that she had

only had one more mile to go.

 

She made it over 96 percent of the way;

and that made me wonder,

if not for the fog,

if she could have seen the goal,

would she have not given up?

Would she have made it?

 

How many times have you

felt like giving up on something?

 

I have, plenty of times.

 

But now,

every time since I read about Florence,

every time I want to quit something

because I think I’ll never reach the goal,

I tell myself,

“Maybe I’m just a mile from shore.

 In fact, the future, the unknown,

 is so much thicker than any English fog,

 maybe I’m only 50 yards from shore!”

 

And the thought of that,

the thought that I might be

just about to make it,

spurs me on.

 

*shrugs*

 

Just some food for thought;

the next time you feel like

you want to give up on something,

remind yourself that

you might just be 50 yards from shore.

 

So hang in there.

 

Have a great week! =)

 

 

grace, peace, and love to you,

dave