Racing with Destiny

When all of life hangs in the balance we’re suddenly brought before a truth that we hardly ever contemplate. It all comes down to this, the culmination of it all.

Whether it’s the birth of our babies, the moment we heard tragic news or starting the race of our lives with only the finish line in sight and mind, life for that exact instant has changed and we withdraw into ourselves, primed only to perform.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Bracing the gate,

Turning the stile,

Not a moment late,

Forward the dial.

Focused attention never to abate,

Sight right now saved for the drive,

Ending we’ll know our breath-held fate,

The moment attends and will not deprive.

Fears deceasing capacities enabled,

Reserves found just in time,

Our state’s hardly dishevelled,

Performing we do right down the line.

Beyond the border,

Fires the round,

Time slows to order,

And adrenalin’s found.

Speeding down that runway,

Ears pinned back,

This is our one day,

Our destined track.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It might be a racing metaphor we contemplate here but it has as much relevance to our everyday lives as any image. We’re all in a race called ‘life’ and though it’s not traversed at break-neck speed like a one-hundred metre sprint there are so many parallels to performance it beckons our attention.

The Moment of Decisiveness

Performance in the ‘race of life’ is probably best illustrated in the moment of our decisions; braced are we for whatever the consequences of our decisions are likely to involve.

Our decisions alone will have their part in shaping our immediate and even our longer term destinies. And even if these decisions are simply to accede to the moments themselves as we roll with those punches.

Performance upon decisiveness is as much about reaping the wisdom that the moment requires as anything; most times this is about the inaction of faith as anything, a faith that remains prudent in discretion — the nobility of reservation.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.

The article was inspired by Whitney Houston’s One Moment In Time song, one that she sang at the Grammy Awards years ago.