Discovering New Lands 

I stumbled on an old Hallmark greeting card the other day. It's one of those cards I saw in the store and thought the quote on the front was so profound, I bought the card, and kept it for myself. While I thought the quote was great many years ago, it really has deeper meaning to me today. 

The quote is by Andre Gide: 

"One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." 

Sometimes we try to hang on to what we have (or had) out of fear of the unknown. This quote embraces the importance of our consenting to let go, to give ourselves permission move on to something different. Fear gets in the way. But sometimes it's not our choice. Instead, we find ourselves thrust into a turbulent ocean and feel "lost at sea," with a sense of hopelessness that we'll never find the shore. For whatever reason we may have lost sight of the shore, this can feel so scary! But the good news is that in this process we can discover a NEW land. It does take time. Perhaps a "very long time." There is actually a lot of HOPE in daring to lose sight of the shore.

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Copyright 2005 National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Santa Cruz County, All Rights Reserved.

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