You find your Self in a small boat placed within the middle of a large ocean. It is calm with still waters and blue sky overhead.
Looking around you, you see nothing but sea and sky. Within the boat, there lies a small paddle. Without reference points or knowledge of your position, there is nothing to demonstrate the path to follow, no signposts, no guidance, no-one to ask, nothing to indicate which direction to go. 

You sit there for some time contemplating your circumstances, looking for inspiration, a sign, something or someone to tell you what to do next, but there is nothing. Your feelings turn from frustration to anxiousness, to anxiety, to annoyance, to anger and then fear. What can you do, what could possibly be the next action you take? Once you have exhausted all your efforts to find something to tell you, you surrender to the fate you find yourself within. In that still moment, when your mind has stopped reaching, debating, arguing, thinking and surmising – a small voice inside says to you – “just row”.

You look around you. Who could possibly have said that? Where did the voice come from? You speak out – but which direction do I row in, what do I need to do once I start rowing, what happens next? The voice remains silent.

So you sit there waiting, well if the voice spoke once, it will speak again. You do nothing waiting once again for more information to be provided. There is no point doing anything without knowing where it will take you. What is the point of starting anything without knowing whether it will be of benefit to you. Why put effort into something without knowing whether it will bring success and reward to you? No, I will just sit here instead and try and work out what I need to do before I take any form of action towards something that might just prove to be costly, a big mistake and probably a total waste of time. After, all someone is bound to turn up eventually and tell me what I want to know and what I need to do.

You sit and wait, the still water continues to be still, the blue sky remains blue. Nothing changes – it is all the same as before. Nothing new has appeared or come along to tell you anything difference to what you knew before. You still have the same questions, the same frustrations, based on the same lack of knowledge with no guidance to assist you. Once again, you surrender to the moment, in the hope that there is a part of you that will bring you the answers you seek. 

The small voice speaks once again – “just row” and goes silent.
You take a deep breath and sigh, but this time you pick up the oar – Here goes nothing, you say. 

You start to row the boat, the sea and sky remain the same, no reference points to head for or steer by. As you row, suddenly a small breeze picks up and you can feel the pressure of the wind on your back as if gently pushing you forward. The wind starts to create small waves on the surface of the water which start to push against the side of the boat leading you in another slightly different direction. As the wind picks up further, clouds slowly start to form. As they begin to cover the sky, a single shaft of sunlight lights up ahead of you shining on the surface of the water as if lighting up a golden path before you reaching towards the horizon. You begin rowing the boat in that direction, aided by the wind pushing you from behind and the waves carrying you forward with each rise and fall. 

After a period of time, you see outlined on the horizon, the dark shadow of mountain tops which can only mean land. Finally a direction to follow, a point of reference, a place to go, a lesson learned and a story to tell.