A compass points north.
It doesn’t tell you where to go. And it doesn’t tell you what to do when you get there. It doesn’t tell you why you should go or what’s so much better about there than here. And it doesn’t encourage you along the way.
It only points north. It will never do more.
To find direction you have to look in some rather surprising places. We need a new kind of compass.
Gail* married at nineteen and was soon pregnant. Her husband convinced her to drop out of college and take care of their baby. Soon she had another and was busy with her young family. Then her husband began drinking, which moved to drugs before he finally left.
Those three sentences hide a world of pain. But she survived, left with a growing family and a string of low paying jobs. In order to make extra money, she cut hair for friends.
She was good at it. They loved it. Word spread. People began to tell her she should do this for a living. She ignored them and went home to the kids. Until one day.
The same compliment happened. The same encouragement came. But after brushing it off for so long, somehow a spark flared.
Now she has her own shop and no longer worries. Instead, she spends her time encouraging others. Because she loves what she does.
It’s obvious in retrospect. Because you know the destination.
But in the middle, it’s a nightmare.
It’s hard to see the future when things are coming apart and you have to start over. It takes faith and endurance. It takes experimentation and trial. Sometimes, it takes having no other choice.
And it takes a little encouragement from your friends.
;
*Not her real name.
Photo: Compass of the USS Hornet by John Loo via Flickr