I haven’t been writing every day like I wanted, but that’s ok. I don’t have much to write about today, or much time to do it, so I will just post this. This is a poem set to music that I sang in high school. The first time I performed this was the summer after I lost a good friend to cancer. Two years later, I directed the same piece in the final choir concert of my high school years.

The poem itself is about life and living. It’s a message of hope that compels us to take risks, lest we wind up at the end of our lives having never really lived.

This is the kind of thing I need to be reminding myself of right now.

The Ship That Sails
Author Unknown

I’d rather be the ship that sails
And rides the billows wild and free;
Than to be the ship that always fails
To leave its port and go to sea.

I’d rather feel the sting of strife,
Where gales are born and tempests roar;
Than to settle down to useless life
And rot in dry dock on the shore.

I’d rather fight some mighty wave
With honor in supreme command;
And fill at last a well-earned grave,
Than die in ease upon the sand.

I’d rather drive where sea storms blow,
And be the ship that always failed
To make the ports where it would go,
Than be the ship that never sailed.

That’s all for today.