UNTIL THE DEEP WATER STILLS

DESTINY

Audio

Dear Mother:

I don’t know if this is the moment you’ve always dreamed about or always dreaded. I hope it’s the former. But in case it isn’t I’ve chosen this method of contacting you so the choice will be yours.

I expect you’ve read about me in the newspapers and heard about me on the evening news. Don’t believe everything you’ve read or heard. The truth is never simple enough to put into a few words. But I suspect you already know that.

I’ve thought a lot about you in the last few days as I went about what I thought was tying up loose ends. Now I realize it was really about putting things in perspective and opening my eyes to the truth.

I’ve never been scared about my future until now. I always believed I had a destiny and everything I did was another mile on the journey to fulfill it. But it seems that destiny is a backward looking thing. It’s the sum total of all you’ve done on the way to understanding yourself. You grasp your destiny when you finally understand who you are.

Here’s another definition of destiny: The process of creating yourself out of the building blocks you’re given. It’s not about reaching a predetermined place. It’s changing the world a little, or a lot, to make room in it for yourself.

So that means there’s not a perfect mold out there waiting for you to fit yourself into it. There’s endless opportunity which you have to wrestle with – and get bruised along the way – to create someone who has never existed before.

In that mirror of destiny things make a lot more sense than they ever have before. The minute you start to feel comfortable and safe it’s time to crank up the volume and tempt fate again. Risk and adventure are the stuff great destinies are forged from.

Mother, I’ve met and talked to you although you didn’t know it was me. I would like to meet you as mother and daughter if for no other reason than to thank you for the sacrifice you made. But the choice is yours – not mine. Know that I have opened the door.

Your loving daughter,

Faith