Staying In The Channel
March 18th 2025
There are a few basic things I remember about navigating waterways as kid.
The main one being Red Right Return.
When returning home, you wanna keep the red channel markers on the starboard side of the bow.
When leaving the dock and heading out into open water, the opposite.
Not difficult, but definitely helpful.
The channel is there to make sure no matter where the tide is, no matter how many sand bars have shifted beneath the water’s surface, as long as you stay between those markers?
You won’t run aground.
You’ll get where you’re goin even if it’s not in a straight line.
Photo Credit:Penny Britt on iStock
This is one of the silver linings of prolonged complex trauma.
Getting used to changes beyond your control.
You learn to be keenly observant, spot signs, and trust your instincts in order to safely navigate changing tides and shifting sands below the surface.
Picture a time when things around you should have caused absolute chaos and fear, but you were able to coast and hold onto an inner peace.
It’s not that you were completely unaffected or felt no pain, but you were able to roll with the punches and keep moving forward.
That’s when you know you’re in the channel.
A few signs you’re in the channel-
You’re paying attention to your surroundings and where your energy is directed.
You’re aware of your emotions and letting them teach you rather than trying to outsmart them, letting them rise and fall as they pass through.
You’re recognizing patterns and behavior in nature both within and outside of you.
You’re not taking short cuts, you’re just looking for the next marker, the next synchronicity, the next intuitive nudge to follow.
You’re taking delighted action and turning the wheel as needed, but you’re in no hurry.
You’re not taking the tides of life personally or blaming the sandbars for getting in your way. Change is just the nature of things.
And when we do find ourselves high and dry, wondering if we’ll ever get moving again? (and we all get stuck in the sand from time to time...)
We’ve just left the channel.
Maybe we thought someone else had a smarter faster route even though they’re in a different boat and on a very different trip.
Maybe we’ve just been distracted or putting unnecessary expectations on ourselves. Shouldn’t we be doing more? Shouldn’t we be getting there faster? Shouldn’t we be preparing more rather than just keeping a hand on the wheel and an eye on the bow?
Usually we’ve just stopped looking for our own markers, veering off into the shallows and out of our deeper knowing.
In times of rapid transformation, when the answers are fewer and further between and you feel the seafloor shifting beneath the surface in ways you can’t yet see —
The smoother and smarter it is to stay in the deep.
Take it one marker at a time.
Even when the planets may be going wild and the world is telling you to beware, remember the moon pushes and pulls at both you and the sea everyday.
This is nothing new.
It’s just the nature of things.
You’ve used your own stars and instincts to guide you before.
Don’t be afraid to be still, to be in the dark, to pay close attention.
Don’t be afraid to listen and trust what you see and feel and turn the wheel accordingly.
Stay in the deep.
Follow your own path.
You’ll get where you’re goin.
I love you. Thank you for reading!
